Kristiina Hormia-PoutanenHead of National Electronic Library Services (FinELib)

National Electronic Library programme and the digital

research and study environment

http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/finelib/

UKSG 2002, Warwick

1

Finland as anInformation Society

Developing Finland as an Information Society• Strategies by various ministries

• Education, Training and Research in the Information Society (1995-1999; 2000-2004)

• The Information Society Programme (1995-1999)

• Developing infrastructure (academic network, Funet)

• Infrastructure is not enough – content is required

• Content is not enough – easy access is required

2

Research Funding

Emphasis on research funding

• The Programme of Additional Funding for Research (1997-99)

• Research funding 3.1% of GNP (2000)

• National Electronic Library project (FinELib) founded

3

FinELib organisation

• As a project launched by the Ministry of Education (1997-1999)

• Became permanent at the National Library in 2000

4

The Finnish research and study environment

5

  Universities (20)

Polytechnics (31)

Research Institutes (approx. 30)

Regional Public Libraries (21)

Organisation & Financing

Ministry of Education / Science

Ministry of Education / ScienceMunicipalities

Various Ministries

Ministry of Education / Culture Municipalities

Infra-structure

FUNET networkFEIDHE authenticationVirtual University

FUNET networkFEIDHE authenticationVirtual Polytechnic

FUNET network

Municipal networks

Library Consortia

FinELibLinnea 2

FinELibLinnea 2 -polytecnic

FinELibLinnea 2 (limited)

FinELib

Library cooperation

Council of University Libraries

Polytecnic library consortium

  Regular meetings

Steering mechanism

NL

Steering committee

Consortium group

Science specific groups

FinELibconsortium

102organisations

6

The National Electronic Library Programme

The aim of the programme is to improve the prerequisites for education and research by:

• Increasing the amount of information available in electronic form

• Improving the retrieval of information in the network

• Providing the users with an interface to heterogeneous information resources

7

FinELib - facts

8

 

Background Number ofmember Institutions

Operational level

Resources Turnover

102 National E-journalsDatabases

EUR 9.4 m

Governancestructure

Formal agreement?

Funding ? Who negotiates?

Number of staff?

Memorandum of Understanding

Self fundingCentral funding

Lead organization

5+1  

Functions Number of Contracts

Who signs? Model license

 

31 National library

no  

 

FinELib services

• Negotiations – terms and conditions– licensing fees

• Invoicing consortium members

• Support– coordinating training– arranging seminars– user support– production of

promotion materials

• Cataloguing e-journals

• Development projects– portal

• Monitoring usage and satisfaction– collecting usage

statistics– performing user

surveys– performing

consortium surveys

9

Key figures of FinELib(EUR 9.3 m, 2002)

10

Acquisitions and Use• 7,500 electronic journals and 100 bibliographic databases licensed• 31 licence agreements signed• 1.4 m articles printed out• Some 3,500 journals catalogued• Usage statistics collected since 1998

Development• National portal under development• National multilingual web thesaurus launched• Survey and guide to e-publishing produced• Language technology projects financed

Training and Marketing• Marketing strategy under revision• Promotion materials produced• Seminars and conferences organized regularly• User surveys run since 1998

Cooperation•National

- with 102 consortium members- with the Ministry of Education- with the Virtual University

•Nordic•International (ICOLC, E-ICOLC, SPARC)

National impact ofFinELib activities

11

 ACTIVITIES

 IMPACT

Acquisition of electronic resources• Elsevier• Web of Science• Nature• etc.

• Improvement of research and study conditions• Increase of the competitiveness of research• Improvement of the availability of e-resources nationwide• Part of the Virtual University and Virtual Polytechnic services

Development projects• Portal

• Improvement of the usability of e-resources

The consortium • 102 members• Universities, polytechnics, public libraries, 30 research institutes• Common principles

• More cooperation nationwide• Active cooperation with other consortia• Increase of influence • Good agreements• Stronger negotiation power

Feedback from users • Services based on user needs

Libraries and the changing environment

LIBRARIES

changes in publishing

changes in research & education

Virtual University

IT developmentuser needs

legislation

12

Elements of the Digital Library in Finland

National Library

• Archiving ofe-resources

• Digitisation

• Implementation of a new library system

• Identifiers, metadata• Licensing• Promoting cooperation

University libraries• Subject gateways• E-publishing• Development of

learning environments

• Projects related to Virtual University

13

User surveys

• User surveys run since 1998– 294 replies (1998)– 918 replies (1999)– 1500 replies (2000) + statistics system– 2115 replies (2001) + statistics system

• Web-based surveys

14

Who is the user?

15

 

 

 

WHO? 1999%

2000%

2001%

MalesFemales

5446

4951

4951

Ageunder 36

 59

 64

 64

StudentsResearchers

2361

3748

3552

 

 

Working environment?

16

WHERE? 2000%

2001%

In own study at university 52 55

In the library 17 15

In a computer class 8 6

At home 8 10

How often are e-resources used?

17

  

 

FREQUENCY 1999%

2000%

2001%

Daily 9 12 16

Several times / week - 30 31

Weekly 38 18 18

A couple of times / month

18 26 25

Less frequently 1999 35 15 11

Reasons whye-resources are used

• Information retrieval for research• Follow up of recent developments• Searching for answers to single

questions• To prepare classes• To prepare learning materials• For studies, for theses

18

How does the content meet user’s needs?

19

SATISFACTION? 1999%

2000%

2001%

Very well 15 10 11

Well 45 47 48

Some 35 35 34

Poorly - 8 7

None 5 0 0

Print or electronic versions?

Willingness to cancel print versions if the corresponding e-version is available

20

  2000 2001

YES 49 57

NO 51 43

FinELib — vision for the future

National service

• Central funding for all consortium members

• Linked to the Virtual University

• Linked to the National Citizen Identification System

• Access to various information resources through the FinELib portal

• Highly used, known and appreciated service by researchers, teachers and students

21