Digital Opportunities Moving from Surviving to Thriving Roy Tennant California Digital Library escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/presentations/2001acrl/

Outline The Copyright War The Convenience Catastrophe The Searching Conundrum The XML Opportunity Subverting the Current Publishing Paradigm

Ebooks Online database licensing Music Software The time period extension (the “Mickey Mouse” clause) The Copyright War War? What War?

The Copyright War The Purpose of Copyright U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8: Congress shall have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

The Copyright War The Purpose of Copyright U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8: Congress shall have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

Current copyright law exists primarily to protect the financial interests of publishers Authors are better served by more access, not less Guess who is at the top of the heap? And the bottom? The Copyright War Whose “Side” is Winning? Publishers Creators Society

The Copyright War The Purpose of Copyright U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8: Congress shall have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

The Copyright War Joining the Battle Boycott e-books and tell your faculty why (there are more reasons than copyright) Refuse to sign overly restrictive licensing agreements; better yet, join with others to do so Support the litigation and lobbying efforts of ALA, ACLU and others Subvert the current publishing paradigm Consider that the day may come when civil disobedience will be our only ethical option

The Convenience Catastrophe What Is It? That which is easy to obtain is favored over that which is difficult Quality or comprehensiveness is secondary “If it isn’t online, I’m not interested” The catastrophe is that print is disappearing Therefore, we must make print: –More desirable –Easier to get

The Convenience Catastrophe Making Print More Desirable Tables of contents and indexes of non-fiction books Book jacket information Reviews (LJ, Choice, etc.) Check out history –Numbers of times –Those who checked out this also tended to check out…

The Convenience Catastrophe Making Print Easier to Get Build consortia with a shared catalog and frequent deliveries Automate wherever possible, and strive for efficiency in ILL procedures Create online requesting and (for articles) delivery services

The Searching Conundrum The Common Perception

The Searching Conundrum The Reality Too many information sources and too many places to go check Not enough assistance at the time and place they need it Not enough ways to filter, sort, and otherwise narrow in on what is needed Not enough awareness of print resources Too enticing to think that which is easy to find is good enough Our users have never needed us more than they do now!

The Searching Conundrum How Can We Be There for Them? Think creatively about how to better serve their needs (clean slate thinking) Work cooperatively to develop robust services: –Cooperative online reference –Gateways, union catalogs, and crawled indexes Be in their face and out of their way

The Searching Conundrum Being “Out of Their Way” Our users simply want to get their work done Over-complicated search systems hinder access for the majority — only librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find! We must also bring together access to multiple information resources

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

Remote Catalogs Local Catalog Local Web Site Remote Web Sites CD-ROM Databases Vendor Dbs Remote Digital Content Local Digital Content

The Searching Conundrum Gateway Schematic User Interface Pre- and Post-Processing Engine Library Catalog Journal Article Databases Web Sites Digital Library Collections Interactive Assistance

The Searching Conundrum Being “Out of Their Way”: How Simplify the front end Complicate the back end: –Search more sources –Pre-process the query –Post-process the results –Offer options for filtering, sorting Provide ways the user can control and personalize their interface

The XML Opportunity A structured markup standard transformed libraries in the latter half of the last century XML (Extensible Markup Language) offers an even greater opportunity XML can be used to encode: –Library catalog or A&I database records –Journal articles –Books –Just about anything… Getting the picture? XML can be a unifying force in a divisive information universe

The reader selects the option to create their own display

The program writes out a temporary stylesheet AND…

Returns the user to where they were, but with an added parameter that specifies their newly created stylesheet

Subverting the Current Publishing Paradigm Why? University A hires Professor A Professor A gives away research findings to Elsevier journal Library A pays huge sum to buy journal with Professor A’s work

Subverting the Current Publishing Paradigm How? Refuse to sign overly restrictive agreements, and urge your faculty to do the same for their work Use emerging technologies to put publishing in the hands of faculty: –Eprint servers (e.g., eprints.org) –Journal creation tools (e.g., bepress.com) Partner with faculty to transform how scholars communicate (e.g., escholarship.cdlib.org)

What This All Means “Challenges” are “Opportunities” viewed from below These are interesting times that require bold and imaginative solutions Organizations do not lead, people do If not now, then when? If not you, then who?