| Planning is action now to secure future consequences. (A. Wildavsky) |
There seems to be something amiss with the image of libraries. The job of librarian has been removed as a career option from college brochures; the professional association refers to 'knowledge workers' rather than librarians; institutes advertise themselves as 'multimedia centres' or 'centres of knowledge'. Have 'library' and 'librarian' become dirty words? Libraries have a tradition to be proud of. In the course of their rich history, many have developed from centres of wisdom into providers of advanced services. Has the era of the traditional library come to an end?
In November 1995, Utrecht University Library (UUL) formulated the following strategic objective:
UUL provides information services for university education and research to members of the university community. In doing so, UUL seeks to help the university achieve its central objectives: to offer education, to carry out research and to make valuable contributions to society at large.
While this objective may not outlive the next century, it does seem to offer sufficient scope for some considerable time to come. Universities have proved to be stable institutions and there is no reason to assume that their need for information will soon subside. No problems are expected on that front. The trouble is that the university libraries seem to have lost their secure footing. A modern librarian's career is strewn with uncertainties. Clearly, this is caused by the rapid changes taking place in information and communication technology (ICT). However, the uncertainty is not directly associated with doubts about the future of the book as a medium of communication. A much more fundamental problem is that the concepts and structures that were introduced in the past to accommodate the information supply process have grown obsolete. The people involved in those processes feel they have lost control, and many of them find it difficult to cope with the ensuing sense of chaos.
The traditional structure of the so-called information chain (the information supply process from producer to consumer) no longer applies. This will inevitably affect the parties that have grown accustomed to their traditional functions in that process, such as booksellers, publishers and, of course, librarians. In addition, the familiar distinction between the information supply process (library tasks) and the processes that service is intended to support (education and research) seems to have blurred. Finally, the distribution of library tasks, so much a part of the library staff's daily routine, is being reorganised. Tasks may disappear or merge with others in entirely new ways while in other areas new tasks are added. Library staff wonder how all this will affect their own jobs.
However, there is no reason to take the gloomy view. Certainly, there are threats, but the threats are outnumbered by the opportunities. All these developments can and should inspire UUL to innovate and continue the invaluable tradition of the library in modern times. Indeed, UUL aspires to be in the forefront of this innovation. As a large university library we feel we must, not so much because we owe it to ourselves but because it is our duty towards the university that we form a part of. Innovation confronts us with choices; our guiding principle in making those choices is to secure added value for education and research.
A virtual library
The library is being transformed into a virtual library that can offer its clients anything, anywhere and anytime, irrespective of where the information requested is stored. Note, however, that for some disciplines this transformation is taking place considerably faster than for others.
While in the more traditional arrangement the emphasis was on the library's own collection, today all the attention is geared towards the client, the user of the library, and his or her request. Where possible, the library no longer restricts itself to its own collection when acting on requests, but also provides access to collections elsewhere. Collections have moved beyond their traditional restrictions as physical carriers of information and are now understood to include data files, electronic full-text files and Internet sources. This has redefined the term 'collection' itself and caused the borderline between collecting and providing information to fade. The library no longer serves as a mere collector of information, but rather as a reference centre or gateway, if you like. 'From collection to connection,' is the well-known slogan. The core objective of library services is to transmit the requested information to the client's home-based or university work station as soon as possible and at minimum cost. Nevertheless, we should not forget that libraries will also have to continue investing energy and resources in what they have always excelled in: lending books.
The library building
In most people's minds, the term 'library' prompts a picture of a building, usually of classical architecture. One thing is absolutely clear: it will be quite a while before the library will be able to dispense with its building. UUL has an enormous number of books, which are still frequently consulted and lent. While digitalisation and electronically accessible sources are quite useful for storing data files and certainly serve their purpose in the case of journal articles, these techniques are completely impractical for long texts that require horizontal reading for the information to be processed. Such documents have to be physically available in the library or stored in a depot. Clients will also continue to need reading rooms where they can consult the books they have requested. But that is not all. There is a growing trend among students to take their own reading material into the library. This trend will not be affected by the increased availability of information on electronic carriers. Students simply want to study in the library building. The question of whether they use library books or their own books, and work on library PCs or on their own laptops, may be interesting but it is not really relevant. In addition to quiet places to study, students increasingly ask for areas where they can study in small groups. The library also serves as a place for people to meet and as such has a clear social function as well.
Any plans for new construction should reflect these trends. It is important for UUL to offer a stimulating environment where people can collect and process information. This is why the design of the new central library at De Uithof, to be inaugurated in 2002, includes a large number of study stations with all the necessary facilities, such as network connections, PCs and user-friendly desktops.
These study stations will be available for much of the day, according to the view that opening hours should be adapted to student demand. In the faculty libraries it will not always be easy to extend opening hours and indeed it may not always be useful. In contrast, the central university library obviously has a special responsibility and should even consider opening its doors 24 hours a day if there is sufficient demand.
In a number of specialist libraries the electronic accessibility of academic information might result in a situation in which these libraries serve no other purpose than to offer students a place to study. In those cases, it might be wise to combine the locations to reduce the costs of extending opening hours.
Building collections
Traditional methods of building collections are being threatened by the continual and substantial increases in subscription fees for scientific journals. The university libraries have joined forces in an attempt to curb this trend. However, in the long run the introduction of new (electronic) models of academic publishing is expected to become a more effective weapon against soaring subscription fees.
The electronic collection of UUL will grow as work stations need to be provided with more and more information. More and more electronic (versions of) journals will appear in the collection under licence. UUL has expressed its firm commitment to make the information available throughout the university campus, both in recognition of the interdisciplinary nature of education and research and in order not to distinguish between work station, study station or home-based locations.
As soon as effective agreements have been made on the filing of data and the licence fees have become acceptable, paper journals will be replaced by electronic subscriptions.
UUL will participate actively in projects that seek to make back volumes of magazines available electronically as well. One example is the American JSTOR project. These projects also provide for the removal of the corresponding paper volumes to save expensive depot space.
A great deal of information is available free of charge on the Internet. The quality of that information varies considerably. According to UUL, one of the functions of the library is to help members of the university community find their way on the Internet by identifying interesting and relevant sources of information for education and research. However, due to the sheer volume of information available and the increasing specialisation of academic research, librarians are finding it more and more difficult to carry out that particular task. This is why UUL will have to make use of a network of scientists and scholars who make their personal bookmarks available, so to speak, enabling the library to systematically arrange those sources and bring them to the attention of others.
Document delivery
The more academics find they can access information electronically at the workplace, the more they will demand that the information still being disseminated in the form of paper documents is made available equally fast. Articles from journals that are not yet fully available electronically will no longer be copied but scanned and then transmitted to the workplace. This is a faster and cheaper method than the traditional system of interlibrary loans. To facilitate this trend, UUL will make use of the DocuTrans system developed by the library of Delft University of Technology.
Only a few years ago, library users had to wait for a week, on average, for the books they had ordered. Today they may expect to be served in 24 hours' time. Yet further improvement is necessary. The books will have to be made available within 2 to 3 hours at most, depending on the location, and delivered to the user's work station.
Perhaps UUL can adopt the methods of pizza delivery companies by using scooters.
In addition, UUL will install so-called 'lend-o-mats' at various library locations, not only to increase the efficiency of service but also as a budget-neutral tool that will allow students to borrow books outside regular opening hours.
Digital archives
Utrecht University Library has a special responsibility for the storage of, and the provision of access to, Utrecht University's academic publications. This is why UUL has taken the lead in attempting to reach agreement on the creation of a digital filing system. The purpose of that system is to provide facilities for the long-term storage of, and electronic access to, the digital publications of Utrecht University scientists and scholars. If the digital filing system is to be a success, agreements will have to be made on the required format in which publications are stored; the responsibility for storage, accessibility and delivery of the documents will have to be clearly defined. There are obvious advantages in linking the digital filing system with the university's research information system.
In addition, by turning the academic annual reports from the university's history into searchable files, the system can also help to open up the past. The annual reports could provide cross-links to electronic versions of the publications mentioned, or refer the user to the places where the relevant titles or journals are stored.
Electronic publishing
Scientific information is becoming more and more expensive. Every year the publishers of scientific journals treat their subscribers, mostly libraries, to quite substantial increases in subscription fees. The advent of electronic versions of those journals has brought little relief. Moreover, the academic community not only pays the actual subscription fee, but also the salary of the author and the editor of the article, it bears the costs of filing the information and incurs copyright fees when an article is included in a reader.
Information technology makes it possible to streamline and speed up the processes underlying the supply of scientific information, and to reduce the associated costs. Indeed, this is what IT is all about. Its success, however, depends on the willingness of universities and publishers to explore new approaches. UUL both supports and initiates activities in this field and, in co-operation with the library of Delft University of Technology, has set up the Roquade Project for organisational and technical support for electronic publishing. The Roquade Project includes semi-official publications and dissertations, but also promotes the creation of new electronic journals and the exploration of innovative opportunities to facilitate communication among academics.
Of course it is impossible to replace all traditional journals by electronic versions overnight. New experiences and insights, however, do contribute to our ability to rearrange the processes of scientific information into a system that is more effectively geared towards the needs of the academic community.
Cultural heritage
One of the major objectives guiding the activities of Utrecht University Library is to preserve and provide access to our cultural heritage. The conservation of old and valuable material is a special responsibility. UUL pursues a systematic conservation policy, the costs of which, however, are far beyond the library's or indeed Utrecht University's own budget. While awaiting coherent national plans for the funding of conservation efforts, UUL depends on financial support from government bodies and sponsors for an efficient approach to this problem.
The digitalisation of manuscripts and old editions is not only important from a conservation perspective, but also because it will help to increase the accessibility of historical data. However, while adding value to the library archives it also involves considerable costs. It is essential, therefore, for UUL to test such projects against strict selection criteria, the most important one of which is the added value the project provides for education and research. In addition, UUL is also planning to introduce a less labour-intensive type of digitalisation, the purpose of which is to provide efficient electronic access to documents in order to obviate the need for the user to physically consult extremely valuable originals.
It is one of Utrecht University Library's fondest wishes to be able also to exhibit valuable material. At present there are only incidental opportunities for exhibitions of this kind, due to a shortage of space. However, thanks to the space that will be available in UUL's new premises in De Uithof, UUL will be able to stage many more exhibitions in the future. UUL will seek co-operation with the University Museum in order to avail itself of that organisation's historical expertise.
Accessibility and individualised supply of information
UUL's current method for the provision of access to documents involves a great deal of work for the library and is not particularly user-friendly either. It relies on many different procedures, which means that clients need extensive instructions on library services before being able to make use of them. These problems are not automatically removed by the introduction of electronic sources of information. External electronic sources may pose accessibility problems of their own. In many cases the client cannot search for the requested information unless he knows where it is stored. This is why UUL gives high priority to the implementation of a one-stop search system. The strategic Information Retrieval project, initiated by UUL for this purpose, will make it possible for clients to run an effective search in which several sources are scanned at the same time. The project will provide a major contribution to the improvement of accessibility.
In addition, the ever increasing volume of information calls for a personal signalling system. While UUL will seek to meet this need partly by providing appropriate software, it recognises that human intervention is indispensable. The signalling system is linked with relevance attribution and requires a thorough knowledge of the relevant discipline. This means that UUL will increasingly need to avail itself of the insights and judgements of scientists and scholars.
Integration in education and research
Without its core function to provide added value for education and research, the university library would lose its right to exist. Developments in ICT will cause the borderlines between the supply of scientific information and the university functions of education and research to fade. The task to improve the integration of its services into the primary university processes is a challenge UUL is more than willing to take up. As for the university's educational tasks, this objective can be achieved by, for example, making available digital readers, fully integrating library instructions into educational programmes and offering more interactive tools to users consulting scientific data. As for the research tasks, UUL is developing electronic publishing tools, reinforcing the personal signalling system, consulting scientists in the selection of relevant sources and supporting them in structuring their information management.
'Solis'
Given that its core task is the supply of information, UUL was found to be the most suitable environment to accommodate Solis, Utrecht University's electronic information system. At present the university web site is perhaps a bit dull, static and supply-oriented. However, in the near future the university will introduce a new navigation structure and identity programme which will gear the supply of information to specific target groups, both in terms of form and content. Further expansion will focus on interactivity, communication within target groups and reinforcement of the integrated nature of Solis-based information supply. Reinforcement means that consultation requests should in no way be obstructed by the subdivision of logistic, management and scientific information services and ICT-based education into separate organisational units.
In addition, the Solis management council will initiate moves to improve the demarcation of administrative responsibility for Solis-based information services within the university divisions.
Customer orientation
The shift in the emphasis of UUL services from supply to demand calls for high-quality communication with clients. UUL seeks to improve its feedback structures, not only by means of user surveys but also by establishing a user council. UUL will develop into a facility provider. This does not mean that all services will be charged to individual clients, since that would impose serious obstacles for research assistants and students who depend on these sources of information. UUL does intend, however, to enter into contracts with faculties and service departments in which specific fees are linked with specific services. These contracts have the dual advantage of providing the faculties and service departments with insight into UUL service costs and the library with insight into the demand for, and quality of, its services.
UUL aims to reinforce these moves by attracting more publicity for, and offering more information about, library services and their innovation. The ICT-based innovation of services will be carried out along with other ICT programmes developed by the university.
Co-operation
In order to realise its objectives, UUL will have to seek co-operation with other university libraries, the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information Services (of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands). The Netherlands is just the right size to enable these institutions to create a national virtual scientific library; nevertheless, they will have to adopt a non-central approach based on a proportional distribution concept. This means that the storage of digital information will be distributed among the participating partners, enabling each library to gear the accessibility and availability of the information to its own client base. Inevitably, some parties will be inclined to take the lead, which is why fully collective progress should never be made a strict condition. UUL, for one, unambiguously aspires to be in the forefront of this development and will seek to establish strategic forms of co-operation with congenial partners.
The nationwide infrastructure will not be effective if it is conceived of as an extension of the infrastructure of traditional libraries, as developed by Pica in particular. The desired infrastructure will have to be designed and shaped with an eye to the future.
Given the university's social responsibilities, UUL will have to make sure that it is easily accessible to clients outside the primary user group. Co-operation with partners in higher education within the Utrecht region is based on the complementarity principle. This means that access to UUL sources for external students and staff in higher education should be free of charge wherever possible, while the settlement of costs related to reciprocal services should take place at institution level. In view of the size of the organisation, UUL, again, is the obvious partner to take the lead in this collaborative venture.
Co-operation with public libraries in the Utrecht region is also based on the complementarity principle. A special project, RUBEN, has been launched in order to establish a single desk for all participating libraries in the Utrecht region, which will enable users to access information stored in those libraries from their home-based PCs. The intention is to charge a single fee for the services of all partners in the project.
Alumni can make use of all UUL services free of charge. Other external clients at least have access to the library building (and the sources available there) free of charge. For any additional services (e.g. borrowing books or ordering reading lists), clients will have to pay a fee that should at least cover the registration costs.
More specialised tailored services to external clients incorporating UUL sources and expertise can only be provided at cost-effective rates. In university priority areas (e.g. the biomedical cluster and theology) or disciplines only available in Utrecht (e.g. earth sciences and veterinary medicine), UUL aspires to play a role as a centre of expertise for external clients as well.
The importance of international co-operation is growing. Co-operation projects should either provide an opportunity for UUL to expand its expertise, or be consistent with the university's overall international policy. In the case of the latter a considerable part of the costs involved will have to be covered by external subsidies. The existing co-operation projects in St Petersburg and Cape Town are fully consistent with these principles and will be continued.
Staff and organisation
Utrecht University Library is a collaborative venture of the central library and the faculty libraries. We have already discussed the fact that ICT developments encourage the integration of library services and the university's core activities of education and research. This applies in particular to front office tasks, i.e. tasks which involve direct contact with clients. The other side of the coin, however, is that infrastructural aspects are becoming increasingly important. Back office tasks are becoming less dependent on location and tend to be concentrated in larger units, which greatly improves efficiency. The innovation of library activities will have to be carefully attuned to developments in education and research and to the differences between individual disciplines. UUL innovation projects are often initiated and co-ordinated by the central library, given the economies of scale that can thus be achieved. Special attention must be devoted to the establishment of good contacts with staff and high-quality communication with clients.
In combination, these developments call for an increased cluster-based organisation of library facilities. The Nahuys Library (the new cluster library for medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, chemistry and biology) sets a good example. Advisory councils ensure the provision of strategic, policy-oriented input per cluster which, in the current situation, is sometimes lacking. Clustering in space is far from necessary and indeed often undesirable, in view of each organisation's continued emphasis on interaction with its own client base.
Most innovation activities are introduced in the form of projects, which involve all departments and faculty libraries. While the co-ordination and control of such innovation projects is centralised, certain new activities will have to be transferred to departments for incorporation into their regular task packages. The timing of such transfers is crucial. Wherever possible, UUL implements innovation projects in co-operation with department library staff so as to facilitate the transfer. In spite of the fact that external subsidies may be obtained for specific innovation projects, the costs of structural changes should, in principle, be defrayed out of the available budget. This implies that other activities may have to be reduced or discontinued altogether, which may cause friction within the organisation. One major responsibility of executive staff is to supervise the implementation of innovation projects and ensure that their priority is recognised. Successful innovation, therefore, requires a broad base of support and commitment as well as considerable flexibility of the organisation and its staff, and will be severely obstructed by any organisational blueprints. The annual budget discussions, therefore, should also cover the selection of new tasks to be implemented, either as experiments or on a structural basis, and the internal priorities necessary to generate the resources required for this purpose.
Within this context, the role of human resources management is crucial. Given that the turnover of library staff is relatively small, most of the new tasks or changes will have to be implemented by existing employees, who may not have the appropriate skills.
As for UUL staff policy, the following aspects merit our close attention.
Firstly, UUL believes it is essential that staff policy itself is a high priority on the agenda of the library management, the director as well as the department heads.
Secondly, both the library organisation and its staff will have to become more flexible. Innovation places demands on the adaptability of the organisation and its operational policy. Moreover, individual activities may be transferred to different locations within the organisation. Strictly defined job descriptions are to be avoided; individual task packages should allow for temporary additional activities.
Thirdly, UUL's staff assessment policy includes regular (preferably annual) performance interviews with individual staff members, conducted by the relevant supervisors and including special attention to career opportunities. The subjects discussed during those interviews may include personal ambitions, possibilities, training needs or wishes and even outplacement.
Fourthly, UUL encourages staff mobility within the organisation, i.e. among various departments and/or locations, on the basis of temporary secondment arrangements or permanent transfers. Both horizontal and vertical mobility is encouraged. The library can expand staff transfer options by creating a file of temporary staff members. Co-operation with other internal departments or with libraries and other institutions in the Utrecht region will create many new opportunities to increase staff mobility. In order to fully realise the potential of those opportunities, however, it is essential that the wishes and possibilities of individual staff members are carefully registered.
Fifthly, the process of change within the library calls for a coherent staff training and retraining policy, and the necessary resources to implement it. Virtually all library staff will have to familiarise themselves with information technology and the opportunities it offers. Another precondition for the optimisation of staff performance is the availability of suitable equipment.
In more general terms, UUL will seek to promote the use of information technology among its staff by introducing an Intranet for internal communication. The many opportunities offered by this medium will be exploited to their full potential and reduce the paper flow to a minimum.
Operational management
Given that UUL is expected to innovate while the demand for its traditional services continues, its financial resources are under considerable pressure. This is why the efficiency of operations is of paramount importance. UUL will continually have to review its operations and find resources for new activities by reducing or discontinuing existing ones or improving efficiency. In addition, UUL will have to secure university and external subsidies for specific innovation projects. For this purpose, the library will have to acquire insight into the integral costs of the services it provides and the innovation projects it is expected to implement. Plans to generate more management information will be given high priority, even if this places heavy demands on the capacity of the organisation. In this connection, UUL will initiate a benchmarking system in order to find out how the quality and efficiency of its services compare with those of other libraries. In addition, UUL will organise a formal review of its operations, comparable with the reviews of university research functions.
Final comments
Utrecht University Library is subject to continuous change. Although its evolution is clearly purpose-oriented, it is impossible to give a detailed picture of the library's future shape. Developments in the field of ICT are the main force propelling this change. Nevertheless, it is essential for UUL to ensure that its innovation is not merely driven by technological possibilities, but also by the need to improve its core function, which is to provide information, and its response to the associated wishes and needs of the university community.
One of the central objectives of all innovation processes, therefore, should be to reinforce client-orientation. The intensification of contacts with clients and client groups, and the conclusion of contracts, will help UUL achieve this objective.
The traditional structure of the information chain is no longer applicable to advanced electronic information supply systems. Another central theme in UUL innovation policy, therefore, is the expansion of the UUL service package to ensure that it covers all links in the information chain.
Last but not least, UUL innovation policy should contribute to the integration of library services and university education and research. The focus is not on the justification of the library as an organisation in its own right, but on its function within the university as a whole.
Note.
Several themes referred to in the policy outline above are discussed in more detail in the following publications:
(See also the Homepage Drs. J.S.M. Savenije)
Savenije, J.S.M. (1996). De onbegrensde bibliotheek. In: De onbegrensde bibliotheek. Lezingen gehouden tijdens het symposium 'De Elektronische Bibliotheek Utrecht' op 3 november 1995. Utrecht: Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht 1996, p. 5-14.
Savenije, J.S.M. (1997). New competitors for the publishers: the cobbler and his last. Electronic Library, 15 (6), p. 431-435.
Savenije, J.S.M. (1998). De terugkeer van de betovering. Symposium 'De onbegrensde bibliotheek' . Utrecht, 23 januari 1998.
Savenije, J.S.M. & J. Gilbert (1998). Van de traditionele naar de virtuele bibliotheek. In: Savenije, J.S.M. a.o. (eds.) (1998). Over grenzen: traditie en vernieuwing in de wetenschappelijke bibliotheek. Amsterdam: Otto Cramwinckel.
Savenije, J.S.M. (1999). Organising library innovation. International Summer School on the Digital Library. August 26, 1999. TICER, Tilburg University.
Savenije, J.S.M. & A.L.M. van Noord (1999). Human resource management in de digitale bibliotheek. Informatie Professional 3 (3), p. 12-16.
Savenije, J.S.M. & N.J. Grygierczyk (1999). The Roquade project: a gradual revolution in academic publishing. Paper presented at Online Information 99, London, 7-9 December 1999.