Opportunity in a time of economic crisis: Crisis as Catalyst Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President Presented at CARLI October 30th, 2009

Overview A small publishers response to the crisis Future and technology focus Tools for scenario planning Business perspective Practical examples Im a publisher not a librarian

$$$$$$$$$$$$ October 2008…

My favorite moment… Emotional Reaction

ASP first reactions… Were a small scholarly publisher Majority of our sales come from the United States Majority of our sales come from libraries Wed just finished our budgeting process… Reduce the number of new products in 2009 Cut costs where possible Reduce travel Tactical initiatives

Tactical initiatives… Jazz music library added free of charge 60,000 additional tracks of quality music Increase speed of launch Cross search tool Begin work on an iPhone version Lower prices Better value

Within a month or two we realized this wasnt enough… Open AccessCollection Size Patron Needs Pricing models Collaboration Library Needs Work with competitors

The environment

Survey was done before Google Books. Facebook and YouTube just beginning. No Twitter. Wikipedia had 50% fewer articles…

Is the web going to improve? By 2014 the web will contain… 90% of published works prior to 1923? Majority of works published to 2014? > 30 Billion pages of , phone logs, databases, blogs and websites (currently 12 Billion)? > 50 Billion photographs (800m per month on Facebook)? > 40 Million pages of facsimiles of manuscripts? > 50 Million audio files? > 500 Million video files?

The future is clear enough to act on… Are search engines going to improve over the next 5 years? Will machine aided indexing get better or worse over the next 5 years? Is Google going to have more or fewer free e-books? Will Kindle devices and devices improve over time? Will Wikipedia become better or worse? Will tomorrows students be more or less media/web centric? Is the cost of space and storage going to increase or decrease? Will mobile devices become standard in education? Will distance learning grow or decrease in the future? ….and what does that mean for our organizations.

The Adoption Cycle… Military Aircraft Civil Airliners Freight and Transport Aircraft Light planes Speed 1920s Jet Engines 1940s

…works for information too. Corporate libraries (Laptops, E-discovery) Medical libraries (PDA reference works, patient records) Research & college libraries (Blackboard, iUniversity) Public & School libraries (Moodle, iPhone) Mobility 1988 Workflow Integration 1940s

June 2006

All technologies evolve and die… Cant be networked Single User Wont improve over time No computer consumption No functionality Not hyper linked Small Manual

You fear loss of control. Libraries? The Web But that has already happened. Ride the wave.

We cannot respond effectively without changing paradigms. We knew this before Its even more important now. The economic crisis as catalyst

A different paradigm Use the crisis to focus the organization Are we serving our constituencies better than everyone else? Decide on the best opportunities and go for them. Its easier to change in times of crisis People are more amenable to change Innovation springs from constraints Necessity is the mother…etc

Today Tomorrow ? Library Riding the wave… ? ? Vendor Library Vendor

Be of the web Music Newspapers Websites Monographs Primary Works Journals

How it played out at our company…

Defining the opportunity What can Alexander Street do that Society (patrons and librarians) need Saves librarians money Delivers huge value Adds value to Google, Wikipedia, YouTube etc… Is transformative Is relevant across many departments Is used by students at all levels

Trend correlation

Catalogs, Abstract and Indexing databases Stock & News Full-Text Journals Full-Text Books Audio Video FT Court Cases Directories

15 times faster to read than to watch… 30 minutes of news 12 double spaced pages 5 minutes to read in depth 2 minutes to scan read

Better than YouTube, Google etc…?

Could we…? Streaming video collection 5,000 titles Newsreels, top documentaries, primary footage Scholarly features In copyright material 400% improvement in productivity? Licensing challenges? Technology challenges?

Cross-check – if we could does it… Save librarians money? (streaming vs. physical copies) Deliver real value? 1,200 titles < $1 per title per year Relevant across many departments? (politics, history, area studies etc) High usage across many libraries? (ARL, college, public)

Results Video Encyclopedia of Human Behavior ? Best selling product weve ever launched 2 nd Best selling product weve ever launched

Transformation See history as it happened View 3,000+ leading academics 3,000+ witnesses to history Explanations and enthusiasm Accessible in seconds Once you get on the other side you can see more clearly…

Letting go…

Raise the threshold on new titles Vs

Machine vs. Manual Indexing Indexing cost >$500k 100k pages Largely out of copyright content Indexing cost >$200k 600k pages All in copyright content

Applying skills in new disciplines Humanities Humanities & Social Sciences

Collaboration

Linking rather than duplication 30,000 pages of public domain texts Keyword search Rudimentary indexing 100,000 pages of in copyright material Semantic indexing Dictionary of Social Movements Manuscript and previously unpublished Structured index to Google Books Google Value ASP Value Much Better Value

Summary

Option A…hold onto the old

Option B – embrace the new Source: Mefeedia, 7/09 # of video feeds

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. Attributed to W. Edwards Deming