LC NL 3 - Library Connect

Volume 1 ■ Number 1 ■ April 2003

newsletterVolume 3 ■ Number 1 ■ April 2005 ■ ISSN: 1549-3725

newsletter

Library Connect Editorial Office ● 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101, USA ● Phone: +1-619-699-6379 ● Fax +1-619-699-6380 ● [email protected]

In this Issue

features

2-4 Measuring Up to Success in Hong Kong

4 Looking for the Inside Scoop on Usage Statistics?This Pamphlet’s for You!

5-6 Electronic Resource Management:Solving the Puzzle

community connections

6 A Library School Intern’s In-house Insights

7 Elsevier Celebrates Unique Dual Anniversary withGift Program for Libraries in Developing Countries

center of attention

8-9 Five Quick Questions for Julia Demasi,Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

8-9 Librarians Speak Up: What’s the MostImportant Criterion You Use to MeasureSuccess at Your Library?

community connections

10 Ask UCD: What Metrics Would YouRecommend When Assessing the Success of a Website?

10-11 Success Story: Single Sign-on EntersRealms of Reality at NYU

on the road

12-13 On the Road in Australia, Canada, Germany,India, Syria and the US

behind the scenes

14-15 Getting Out and About:Listening Is First Priority for New Chief Exec

15 Full Moon

staying connected

16 Upcoming Events

Welcome to the first issue of the new year’s LibraryConnect. If you find a certain relentlessly upbeat tone, thenit’s probably because it is going to press just as spring isfinally asserting itself in the Northern Hemisphere. Two

weeks ago in London we were clearing snow and ice from ourcars, yesterday evening we were embarrassing our childrenagain by going about the neighborhood in shorts.

This issue’s theme looks at what constitutes a successful library, and in the following pagesyou can read several different takes on the subject. In my own experience library directorscan be faced with two different sets of criteria for success, sets which are rarely 100%overlapping and which can sometimes be in serious conflict.

Tony Ferguson’s interview brings out very well what we might call the external successfactor — the extent to which the library service provides for the needs of its users andserves the aims and priorities of its parent organisation. Sometimes this can be complex:balancing the demands of genuinely needy but humble users with those of the noisilyinfluential can be difficult. Tony rightly highlights that measuring and demonstrating qualityin service delivery is an increasing crucial issue for research librarians, and much moredifficult than our traditional (and easily accomplished) event-measuring and user surveys.

If we are looking for evidence that good staff and effective leadership can make adifference, there are plenty of examples in this issue, but none better than the reportof our anniversary book donation program on page 7. Ten research libraries in developingcountries will each receive a substantial donation of current Elsevier textbooks. As oneof the panel who selected these libraries, I was stunned by the quality of service thatgood librarians can conjure from the most limited resources.

Two more items in this issue to highlight: Page 14 has an interview with Herman vanCampenhout, Elsevier’s new Science and Technology Chief Exec. Herman is veryserious about wanting to hear what our customers have to say, so if you are visitinga library exhibition and see a very cheerful and very, very tall man on the Elsevier booth —he is there to be spoken to and will be pleased to hear what is on your mind. And finally,this issue sees the launch of Full Moon ([email protected]), a regular column of stufftoo unreliable to be included in the proper parts of LC and to which I hope many of you willcontribute in time and enjoy the rewards on offer for doing so.

Tony McSeán, Director of Library Relations, Elsevier, Oxford, UK

Tony McSeán

Welcome

From April 2005, Library Connect newsletter issues and practicalassistance pamphlets will be published in HTML, as well as in printand PDF.

e know, because you have told us, that many of you stillprefer to receive a print copy of Library Connect and that’s OK,as we don’t have plans to go e-only, yet! Other readers havelet us know that they would prefer to browse the newsletteronline in HTML, and benefit from the increased interactivitythis format can provide.

We are pleased to supply multipleprint copies of our pamphlets, forpersonal, classroom or conference use.You can request copies by dropping aline to [email protected] orby using the enclosed pre-paid replycard. An online subscription/order formis also available, together with ourpublications, at: www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect. Copiesare always on display at our upcoming events (see page 16). ■

www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect

LC Publications Now Available in Print and Online

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Library Connect Pamphlets #1-7

hot topic among today’s librarians isjust how to obtain meaningful librarymeasures in the electronic age. Whichmeasures are the most meaningful for thelibrary itself and for other stakeholders,such as faculty and university administra-tions? Library Connect’s Alex Lankester,Head of Account Development, ElsevierSingapore, interviews Tony Ferguson,Librarian, University of Hong Kong, tofind out his views on the subject.

LC: As a librarian, what are some of theimportant differences working in HongKong as opposed to Europe or the US?

Tony Ferguson: I am not sure if therereally are any great differences. I haveworked at a number of universities inNorth America: from Brigham Young,to Texas A&M, to Columbia and nowthe University of Hong Kong. All theseinstitutes have similar courseworkrequirements, teach doctoral and mastersprograms, and have ambitious universityadministrations who want libraries todo big things on tight budgets. I’vefound university cultures are perhapsstronger than transnational borders.

That said, I do think interpersonalrelationships are different in Hong Kong.American culture tends to be somewhatmore confrontational. This doesn’t meaneveryone simply agrees with each otherin Hong Kong. There are, of course,differences of opinion but the means ofapproaching these differences are verydifferent here. What might be called“straightforward” in the US could beconsidered ill mannered or rude here.

Another notable difference is the waylibrarians approach licensing negotiations.In Hong Kong negotiations are a high artform. I sometimes feel sorry for vendorsand think, “If I were them I would giveup in the first hour.” People here will

hold out for sixteen months if that iswhat it takes.

LC: Do you find the faculty influence onthe acquisitions process to be strongerin Hong Kong or North America?

Ferguson: At Hong Kong University,faculty influence is much stronger than inNorth America. In North America, becauseof the “publish or perish” mentality, thefaculty simply did not have time to beheavily involved in book selection. Thisreality has only recently become eminenthere and it is not uniformly shared. I stillhave faculties who are against librariansmaking selections without asking first fortheir approval. I would say about a thirdof the faculty think they know the needsof the end user much better than thelibrarians and they want to be in acommand and control position. Inplaces such as Columbia the faculty hasto demonstrate at all times that they areleaders in their academic field so theysimply don’t have time to browsethrough brochures and spend timeassessing the acquisitions policy.

LC: So, was this a re-adjustment for you?

Ferguson: I have alwaysstrongly believed we shouldbuild collections to meetuser needs. In my mind the

faculty involvement here is just anoth-er amplification of user need. Havingbeen a librarian for 37 years, I see thehigh level of faculty involvement hereas similar to the faculties I worked with30 years ago in the US and, inthe future, I think this will change inHong Kong.

LC: In Hong Kong do you experience thesame type of budgetary pressures as inNorth America?

Ferguson: We have the same squeezes,but in North America I had the benefit ofworking at two private universities wherewe did not need to worry about what thelegislature was going to do every year. Atprivate universities with healthy budgets

and strongendowmentsyou areinsulatedfrom the upsand downs ofthe economy.At stateuniversities,my peers were at the mercy of statelegislature and massive swings in highereducation budgets.

Hong Kong University is a governmentsponsored university so had I been hereprior to the global economic down turn, Iwould have thought, “Gosh this is reallywonderful.” However, I arrived here afterthe down turn and the economy is onlynow just recovering. University support ingeneral is still down, so I am experiencingthe kind of pressures faced by state rununiversities in the US. In the past threeyears we have suffered from 3%, 4% and5% budget cuts. Conversely, across theborder in China proper, budgets are growing.

LC: What criteria do you use to measurethe success of your library?

Ferguson: User satisfaction is a keymeasure. Annually we do some kindof user satisfaction survey in additionto a large biannual survey. We includequantitative and qualitative questionsand give people the space to writecriticisms, comments and compliments.Last year more than 2,000 peopleresponded to our online questionnaire.We take comments, classify themaccording to topic, and brainstorm infocus group meetings with both studentsand faculty on how to move forward.User surveys are critical to us and helpinform our future strategic direction.

We also benchmark ourselves against15 other universities in Australia, NewZealand, the UK, Asia and North America.We assess factors such as dollars spentoverall per FTE student and faculty,dollars spent for collections, staffing,circulations and more. In short, we aretrying to assess dollar ratios to see if we

2

FEATURES

Measuring Up to Success in Hong Kong

Tony Ferguson

AA

“User surveys are critical to us and helpinform our future strategic direction.

”

are spending a reasonable amount incomparison to our benchmarkedlibraries, and whether we are gettingas much out of our staff in terms ofcirculations, and so on.

LC: Which success metric do youconsider to be the most crucial measure?

Ferguson: We put the most weightand value on the end user satisfactionsurvey and see this to be the mostinformative measure.

LC: Have success measures changedsince the introduction of electronics?

Ferguson: Obviously, the ability to doonline surveys has made a big difference.In addition to our annual surveys, we’reable to run smaller surveys and reallydrill down and scrutinize how thelibrary’s resources are being used.The delivery of electronic user statisticshas also greatly changed things. Whenyou see tens of thousands of articlesbeing downloaded it does make adifference, and tells you that you aredoing something good.

LC: What components of your libraries’performance are particularly hardto measure?

Ferguson: Quality of service is difficult tomeasure. We can get an overall feelingfor this from end user satisfactionquestionnaires on circulation or referencedesk performance, but this is hard toquantify. Likewise, how do you reallymeasure the quality of your collection?We had 1.4 million books circulated lastyear which is pretty good for 18,000 totalstudents but that still doesn’t tell youabout the quality of the individual books.

LC: Do metrics influence yourbuying decisions?

Ferguson: Statistics on what is readand not read, especially for serials, are

critical. For the past three years, we havebeen assessing re-shelving statistics onunbound periodicals and providing theseto our faculties when asking them toconsider cutting duplicates to print and

electronic subscriptions.

Our next step willbe to scrutinize thepublisher “big deals.”This will be more

difficult as we have tended to be a bigdeal serials buyer. I happen to be in favorof the big deal because my experiencehas shown me that librarians do thebest they can in predicting what willbe used and not used but at the end of

the day, the user decides. But if ourbudget is cut another 5% next year wewill be back to assessing our statisticswith a vengeance — and they willmake a big difference in our buyingdecisions and willingness to continuewith the big deal.

LC: Do you find this kind of statisticalinformation helpful when asking foradditional funds from your universityadministration, and how much is thisinformation taken into account bythe administration?

Ferguson: It hasn’t helped here becausethe annual question is, “How much canwe cut you by?” so we don’t need to goto that level of granularity. We raise theissue of journal and book price increasesin general but that is about it. Our mainargument is simply, “Please don’tcontinue to cut us otherwise we cannotpay our bills.” My experience is thatuniversity administrators don’t have timeto listen to long stories, and statisticsinvariably lead to long stories.

LC: What channels do you use tocommunicate information aboutlibrary successes?

Ferguson: We have a bi-monthly onlinenewsletter, Focus, produced internally.We have to be in the public relationsbusiness to ensure that our library getsthe necessary levels of support. We sendprint copies to the top 30 universitydecision makers and distribute theelectronic version to thousands of people.We also communicate our successesthrough our annual report and to thesenate library committee, chaired by theDeputy University Vice Chancellor.

LC: With the library profession changingand developing as it is, what do yousee as being important skills for librarymanagers such as yourself into the future?

Ferguson: Flexibility is crucial — beingopen-minded and understanding thatwe are in the information business, notthe book business. Just that one thinggoes a long way and I am constantlyamazed that some librarians don’t

April 2005 Library Connect newsletter 3 |

FEATURES

About the University ofHong Kong Libraries

The HKU Libraries system includes acentral library and law, medicine, dental,music, education and East Asian branchlibraries; a 2.3 million volume collection;950,000 e-books; more than 25,000 serials.The HKU Libraries system adds 110,000volumes per year; circulates 1.4 millionitems along with 0.8 million in-houseuses; has 36 professional librarians and238 support staff; and has a US$ 20.9million overall budget.

http://lib.hku.hk/

University of Hong Kong Libraries

“My experience is that university administratorsdon’t have time to listen to long stories, andstatistics invariably lead to long stories.

”

get it — they still think they are in thecataloguing or shelving business! Weare in the business of meeting userneeds and that is it. If our vocationalprocesses get in the way of that, wehave to change and be flexible. Youhave to be with it electronically; inmany ways that can be hard for aperson like me who is 60 years old. Buttoday’s librarians can’t frown on thingssuch as blogs and wikis. They are nowpart of the job.

LC: Separate from how the librarymeasures its success, in what waysdoes the university administrationmeasure the library's success?

Ferguson: They love things like “We arethe biggest!” so size does matter. With2.3 million book volumes and 26,000e-journals we can say we are thebiggest library in Hong Kong. One ofmy goals in the next year is to reach theone million e-book figure, which globallywill be unique. The administration likesus to be number one. This is veryimportant for the profile of the universitywhen recruiting faculty and students.However, they would like us to achievethis on less money, of course.

LC: How does faculty perceive successof the library?

Ferguson: Faculty are really supportiveand like the fact that we have morethan doubled the number of e-journalsfrom 8,000 to 26,000 in the past threeyears. But they are frustrated we don’thave enough space. We add about110,000 volumes each year and wesend to remote storage another 110,000volumes each year. So, we have thetraditional library need for more space.We are trying to address this in HongKong by putting together a joint storagefacility such as the shared storagefacilities in North America, and we’relooking to build another building.Across the border in China, the librariesare building frantically. But we haveless space in Hong Kong. ■

4

FEATURES

Looking for the Inside Scoop on Usage Statistics?This Pamphlet's for You!

Daria DeCooman, Global Account Development & Channel MarketingManager, Elsevier, San Diego, CA, USA

he newest Library Connect practical assistance pamphlet,"What Counts and What Doesn't: An Insider's Guide to UsageReports,” is hot off the press and available in print and onlineat www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect.

Marthyn Borghuis, a senior manager with Elsevier’s UsageResearch Department, edited this pamphlet, bringing togetherdiverse voices and points of view in an in-depth examination ofthe impacts and value of usage reports for electronic resources.

Librarians Tony Kidd of Glasgow University Library, AnthonyFerguson and Gayle Rosemary Y.C. Chan of the University ofHong Kong Libraries, and Elizabeth Lorbeer of the Library ofRush University Medical Center, explain how their librariesare using locally produced and vendor-provided usagereports. They also suggest ways vendors’ usage reports maycontinue to be improved.

COUNTER Project Director Peter Shepherd gives the latest newsabout COUNTER and summarizes COUNTER's achievements.According to Dr. Shepherd, “Our work has given librariansconfidence in the quality of the data.”

Maurits van der Graaf reports on input gained during recentinterviews with European and US university librarians, whoidentify the wonderful and woeful aspects of usage statisticsand their applications.

Elsevier representatives Sonja Lendi and Dirk de Heer take readerson behind-the-scenes tours showing how Elsevier usage reports are

produced and used by Elsevier itself. Thepamphlet additionally offers useful informationto assist librarians with understanding andapplying Elsevier-produced usage reports.Sonja’s article answering the most frequentlyasked questions about Elsevier-provided usagereports may prove a handy guide to information professionalsaccessing ScienceDirect or Scopus usage reports athttp://usagereports.elsevier.com.

So, upon conclusion of reading this pamphlet, what mightreaders take away? Librarians are using usage reports to:

■ Evaluate collections of digital resources.■ Make better informed decisions about library resources.■ Make evidence-based decisions.■ Build collections based on actual use.■ Drive collection development decisions.■ Produce cost-benefit assessments to justify expenditures.■ Convey benefits of investments in e-resources.■ Produce annual reports.

Is that all which warrants reporting from the new pamphlet?Certainly not, but for the rest of the nuggets — including thefact that library websites accounted for 24% of all referrals toScienceDirect during 2004 — you must turn to the pamphlet itself.

If you'd like printed copies of any of our pamphlets, pleaseuse the enclosed pre-paid reply card or send a note [email protected], specifying the numberrequired and your complete mailing address. If you happento be at an upcoming events (see page 16) ask an Elsevierrepresentative for copies. ■

www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect

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Electronic resource management is the process of managingthe information necessary to select, evaluate, acquire, maintainand provide access to electronic resources in accordance withlicense terms.

Kathryn Harnish, Meridian Product Manager,Endeavor Information Systems, Des Plaines, IL, USA

e’ve all seen the evidence: Electronic resources have becomeincreasingly popular in libraries and among library patrons inthe last decade. Not only are the majority of scholarly journalsnow available in electronic format, but a recent survey1 reportsthat 80% of students and faculty indicated they access onlinejournals, with three-quarters of respondents reporting apreference for the electronic version.

Although electronic resources offer exciting advantages forpatrons, libraries are left with the considerable burden ofmanaging this content and the associated license agreements.Electronic resource management (ERM) has emerged as animportant topic of discussion; it’s a key aspect of a librarian’swork and many libraries have developed homegrownsystems to tackle this challenge. Certainly, all agree there’sa need for systems to help with this task.

Tim Green, Library IT Manager at the London School ofEconomics (LSE), explains, "It is essential that we have an

effective way of keeping track of the licenses associated withour ever-growing pool of electronic journals, books, datasets,and databases. This means not only tracking the applicablelicenses, but also recording key details about each, such asadministrative data like renewal dates and which groups of userscan use which resources and from where." Green continues,“Tracking electronic journals licenses is a complex businesswith many titles available via several packages and, of course,with different license terms dependent on the package andsupplier. The titles associated with particular packages arevolatile, which further complicates matters. If we are to haveany hope of keeping on top of the relevant terms and conditions,it is important that any solution works well with our existingsystems — not to mention data from specialist serviceproviders like Serial Solutions who help us keep track of the13,000 plus titles we manage." Only with an effective systemfor managing all processes related to electronic resourcescan libraries increase the level of service provided topatrons and decrease effort for library staff.

In early 2003, acting upon needs articulated by libraries suchas LSE and the Digital Library Federation Electronic ResourceManagement Initiative, Endeavor Information Systems beganthe development of Meridian — a system designed to manageinformation about electronic resources. From the outset, weworked with libraries to ensure we addressed the kinds ofe-content challenges encountered by electronic resourcespecialists and their colleagues throughout the library. Extensivediscussions with more than 100 libraries from around the worldsurfaced key functional issues and provided feedback on topicssuch as workflows and interface design.

In addition, we engaged four development partners: ColumbiaUniversity Libraries, New York, NY; the Library of the LondonSchool of Economics and Political Science, London, England; theUniversity of Pittsburgh University Library System, Pittsburgh,PA; and the Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ. Staffmembers from these libraries helped our software architectsand developers to understand the devil in the details — howpackages work, how licenses and addenda fit together, howdifferent library staff members are likely to use e-contentinformation, and so on. Subsequently, they helped prioritizethe features necessary for successful electronic resourcemanagement and provided lots of feedback on support forvarious workflows in Meridian. Thanks to the efforts of ourdevelopment partners, Meridian provides flexible, yetcomprehensive support for the myriad activities involvedwith e-content administration.

Elsevier’s User Centered Design (UCD) Group, a team ofhuman-computer interaction experts, assisted interfacedevelopment. Discussions between library developmentpartners, the Endeavor team and the UCD group resulted ina Web interface prototype that illustrated workflows andfunctionality related to electronic materials. After creating this


FEATURES

Electronic Resource Management: Solving the Puzzle

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During 2004, Endeavor commissioned market research into the valueassigned by librarians to a variety of features when selecting an ERM.More than 150 librarians from 100 institutions around the world wereasked to rate a list of features on a scale of 1-9, where 1 signified“not at all valuable” and 9 “extremely valuable.”

The following features received the highest ratings:

In response, Endeavor designed Meridian to address all of thesecritical functional needs. For more information, and to sign up for anonline demonstration, visit www.endinfosys.com/meridian.

■ Define authorized users of licensed content.

■ Record terms and use restrictions.

■ Record licensee and licensor information, including links topackages and resources.

■ Link and import acquisitions data associated with the license.

■ Record duration of license.

■ Store provider records, including contact information.

■ Record holdings and coverage data.

■ Link or import existing MARC descriptive records.

■ Import descriptive data in from other sources (SerialsSolutions, TDNet, etc.).

■ Define a package and indicate what resources are receivedas part of the package.

■ Allow staff to track the status, problems reported with aresource, and resolution.

■ Manage statistics and generate usage reports for allresources regardless of vendor.

■ Produce reports based on locally defined criteria.

6

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

A

In June 2004, Elsevier posted on a SanJosé State University School of Libraryand Information Science listserv anannouncement about an internshipopportunity with Elsevier. Jill Ovren, amaster’s degree candidate with the school,applied for the position. Two writing samples,two interviews and two weeks later, Jillwas offered the position and embarkedon a 14-week program providing anintroduction to the world of publishing.

Jill Overn, MLIS Student and Issue Manager,Journals Production, Elsevier, San Diego, CA, USA

s an Intern, I worked closely with theGlobal Account Development andChannel Marketing (GADCM) team, whichfocuses on creative ways of providingcustomers with resources beyond what’sincluded in their licenses. This was suchan amazing learning experience; it wasgreat to be able to participate in activitiesand marketing programs that deal directlywith librarians. Prior to this program, Ihad no idea how much time and energyare spent on maintaining positiverelationships with Elsevier customers.

One of the main objectives of myinternship was to work on a LibraryConnect pamphlet focusing on informationliteracy — a very important topic amonglibrarians these days. I provided researchand developed and wrote articles.Particularly I enjoyed communicating

directly with librarians across theglobe on this project, as well ascollaborating with Elsevier colleaguesin various locations.

In addition to contributing to LibraryConnect publications, another focal pointof my internship was outreach to Elseviercustomers. I had the chance to visitPepperdine University in Irvine, California,and with Elsevier colleaguesfrom New York and SanDiego put on an eventproviding graduate andundergraduate studentswith demonstrations ofScienceDirect, Scopus and Scirus.Pepperdine students and even professorswere impressed with our presentationsand the Elsevier databases. Many had noidea such great resources were availableto them through their university libraryand were grateful for the instruction. Wehad a lot of fun and helped participantsestablish 64 ScienceDirect personalprofiles in one afternoon.

Before my internship, I didn’t have muchexposure to the publishing industry. I wasfamiliar with end products, but not theprocesses involved in getting products tocustomers, or the measures taken tomaintain happy customers. It’s nice tohave a behind-the-scenes perspective totake back to my cohorts in library schooland, as you may have noticed from mybyline, my internship in channel marketing

led to a job in journal issue management,where I work with different customergroups — authors and editors.

Elsevier and other large publishers tendto have a negative reputation amonglibrarians, but I think this internshipprogram can help bridge the gap betweenpublishers and library professionals. ■

A Library School Intern’s In-house Insights

prototype, a series of usability tests was conducted at eightdifferent libraries. At each library, electronic resource librarians,reference staff, ILL technicians and others were asked tocomplete common tasks associated with e-resources. Forexample, librarians used the prototype to troubleshoot a problemresource. Watching and listening as test participants workedthrough the task, the team noted areas in which the usersstruggled, asked questions, clicked on the wrong buttons, and so on.Changes were incorporated based on this feedback. The resultis an intuitive interface providing support for all aspects of

electronic resource management; it’s really easy to use, butcontains the level of sophistication librarians have told us they need.

Endeavor’s user-focused approach to the development ofMeridian, from initial research to interaction with developmentpartners and usability testing, is evident in the finished product,which is now being tested and implemented at our partnerlibraries. We’re excited about our June 2005 commercialrelease — and the opportunity to help libraries conquer thechallenges of electronic resource management! ■

Would you like to be our next

Library Marketing Intern?

Jill’s positive experience, as well as the benefitsand insights she brought to the Global AccountDevelopment and Channel Marketingteam, has strengthened support for an LISinternship program at Elsevier. Thus, weare delighted to announce the programwill continue with an internship being offeredduring summer and fall 2005, in San Diego,CA. Please contact Daria DeCooman([email protected]) for further details.

The Growing Electronic Resource Management Puzzle andEndeavor's Meridian Solutionwww.endinfosys.com/prods/meridian_whitepaper.pdf

1Carol Tenopir, Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: An Overview andAnalysis of Recent Research Studies (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library andInformation Resources, 2003). www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/contents.html

Jill (center) with GADCM team members ChrysanneLowe (left) and Daria DeCooman (right).

“Before my internship, I didn’t have muchexposure to the publishing industry.

”



Elsevier Celebrates Unique Dual Anniversary with Gift Programfor Libraries in Developing Countries

The year 2005 has special meaning for Elsevier. It marks boththe 125th anniversary of the founding of the modern Elsevier,as well as the 425th anniversary of the original House of Elzevir,from which we take our name.

Karlyn Messinger, Manager, External Communications,Corporate Relations, Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA, USA

A Bit of History

he Elzevir family began their printing andbookselling business in the Netherlands in 1580.Significantly, they did it at a time when publishingwas “risky business,” when freedom of speechand freedom of the press were societal values invery few places. In fact, luminaries such as JohnLocke, Galileo Galilei and Hugo Grotius chose topublish with the Elzevirs in order to avoid thecensorship and regulation in their own countries.

Lowys (Louis) Elzevir and six generations after him ensured thesuccess of their publishing house in Leiden by developing astrong relationship with the university there, for which theyprinted theses and reprints of classic texts. One family memberor another would serve as both beadle, or peace officer, oncampus and official printer, until in 1712, the last of the originalElzevir family publishers died, leaving behind no heir willingto continue the business. During its existence, the House ofElzevir published some 2,000 to 3,000 titles, including reprintsof virtually all the major works of classical antiquity. Quite anachievement even by today’s standards!

The modern Elsevier was founded in Rotterdam 125 yearsago by Jacobus George Robbers to continue the tradition ofprinting fine editions of literary classics. After World War II,Elsevier began to lead the way in international sciencepublishing, and later, added the expertise of highly respectedcompanies and imprints, such as Academic Press, ExcerptaMedica, Churchill Livingstone, Mosby, Pergamon, Saunders,Urban & Fischer and others. Thus, from 1880, the newcompany grew to the leader it is now, playing a vital role inbringing scientific and health information to researchers andpractitioners the world over.

“A Book in Your Name”

To mark these two important anniversaries our “A Book in YourName” program invites each of Elsevier’s 6,700 employees tochoose one of 10 libraries in developing countries to receive abook from a core collection of our most important and widelyused scientific, technical and medical publications. The programaims to link the individual action of our employees to a collectivecompany effort to share scientific and health knowledge

around the world. The books will be donated by Elsevier andgiven to the respective libraries in the employee’s names.

An Advisory Panel of distinguished librarians, who haveworked to support the growth of libraries in need throughout

the world, helped select the beneficiary libraries.They are Ibrahima Bob of Africa ConsultantsInternational in Senegal, an NGO specializing incommunication for development and Presidentof the Association for Health Information andLibraries in Africa (AHILA); Derek Law, Head ofthe Information Resources Directorate, Professorin the Department of Computing, and Head ofthe Centre for Digital Library Research at theUniversity of Strathclyde; Tony McSeán, Directorof Library Relations at Elsevier, and previouslyDirector of the British Medical AssociationLibrary for 16 years; and Lenny Rhine, Assistant

Director for Collection Management at the University of FloridaHealth Sciences Libraries and compiler of the InternationalNetwork for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)Health Links gateway as well as the INASP LibraryPartnership Database. Speaking about the scheme, ProfessorRhine said, ”This donation will represent a huge addition tothe individual collections of these libraries. It is good to knowthat these books will be working very hard indeed as soon asthey touch the shelves. Respective faculties and students willquickly begin to utilize these new resources.”

The 10 recipient libraries are located in Africa, South Americaand Asia. They include the Library of the Sciences of theUniversity of Sierra Leone; the library of the MuhimbiliUniversity College of Health Sciences of the University ofDar es Salaam, Tanzania; the library of the College of Medicineof the University of Malawi; and the libraries of the Universityof Zambia, Université du Mali, Universidade EduardoMondlane in Mozambique, Makererer University in Uganda,Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador; UniversidadFrancisco Marroquin in Guatemala; and the National Centre forScientific and Technological Information (NACESTI) in Vietnam.

Watch for a roundup of the program results, includingpictures and comments from participants and recipientsin a later issue of LC. ■

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What are“Elzevirs”? The word “Elzevirs” connotes small original reprints of theclassics or scholarly books of diminutive proportions whichcould be carried in one’s pocket. In the late 19th century,they were avidly collected and greatly prized, because theold House of Elzevir produced such a superb, respectedbody of work.

What’s the Most Important Criterion You

8

CENTER OF ATTENTION

Librarians Speak U p

Five Quick QuestionsJulia Demasi, Library Assistant and LIS Student, Instituto deIngeniería Eléctrica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de laRepública, Montevideo, Uruguay

What kind of tracking do you conduct to

evaluate success of your libraries?

Currently I'm leading two annual projects. One trackingproject looks at the quality of our electrical engineeringjournals, most of them available in print only, and the otherlooks at the real value of our library system — not only inengineering but also in related subjects.

How are you evaluating the quality of your

journal collection in electrical engineering?

The approach I'm taking involves two parts. First I see howmany of our faculty researchers cite — in their publishedarticles — journals provided by the Electrical Engineering

Library, a satellite library of thefaculty's central library. Second,I survey faculty researchers via anannual questionnaire asking whichare, in their opinion, the top journalsin their area. Given the high level ofcoincidence of information gathered in both parts, I can say our electricalengineering journal collectionappears to be of high quality. In fact,this collection sees excellent use from users within andoutside the institute.

And how are you assessing the value of your

libraries in toto?

Each year, teachers in the Faculty of Engineering mustsubmit reports listing, among other information, theirwritings published during that year. In reviewing references

1.

2. 3.

Julia Demasi

Cathy Rex, Head of Library Services, University of theWest of England, Bristol, UK

Put simply — user satisfaction with the servicesand facilities provided.

In today's world it is positive user feedbackthat will enable a library to retain institutional support. It is userfeedback that is looked for to endorse any statements a librarymight make about the quality of its service.

In the past, libraries have been fixated on quantitative measures:How many journals? How many books? It is not “how many” thatis important. What is important is that services and facilities meetthe needs of users. To achieve this we must listen to users toinform decision-making. We must be:

■ Responsive to changes in those needs.

■ Pro-active in anticipating how changes in the widerenvironment will influence service development.

■ Able to prove what users think of the service offered.

We must systematically consult with users and gather feedbackfrom users by any means possible. ■

Carol Hansen Montgomery, Ph.D., Dean of Libraries,Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Library evaluation is a multi-faceted art, not ascience. And it should be continuous. Users canbe surveyed only so many times and in so many

ways and the results can be difficult to interpret. So, what I dependon primarily is unsolicited comments, mostly from users, but alsofrom staff. Do faculty tell me at social events or meetings howpleased they are with the subject librarian assigned to their area?Do they send unsolicited emails or memos expressing appreciationfor a librarian’s assistance? How are comments regardingcontroversial issues such as funding for electronic versus printcollections balanced? Are repeat unfilled requests mostly forimprovements that we either cannot make or cannot justify ascost-effective, e.g. longer hours, higher or lower temperatures, andless noise from other users? Do staff members express satisfactionand look for ways to do better? Experience has taught us that mostof our user satisfaction surveys do little more than confirm what weknow already from this unstructured feedback. ■

Use to Measure Success at Your Library?


CENTER OF ATTENTION

included in these publications — written by members ofour own research community — I see which references citeresources held by our libraries and which cite resourcesheld beyond our library. To perform such a review, I simplyrun searches of our OPAC.

What have your reviews of researchers'

citations shown?

These citations refer often to books and journals held byour libraries. Our collection seems to be a strong sourceof material for our community members' research.

What else have you found? Any surprising

conclusions?

My findings have shown that journals which are mosthighly regarded by our researchers tend to be the mostwell cited and most used by researchers at our institute.But it appears difficult to tell exactly what factors go into

such success. For example, a publisher's marketing effortsmay have an impact on how well regarded and well useda journal is.

The most surprising finding is that our researchers useonline subscriptions only if we also subscribe to the sameresources in print. I also found our researchers still havevery little knowledge of the value of online resources likeindexes and search engines.

Conducting more in-depth research however isn't on myhorizon. For the near future I'll continue with my twoassessment projects; simple as they may seem, they aredelivering useful information. In this time of budget cutsfor our libraries, metrics are appreciated. I'm glad to becontributing to efforts to determine the value of ourlibraries for our researchers. ■

4.

5.

Mr. Jianzhong Wu,Director, Shanghai Library,Shanghai, China

There is a multitude ofways to assess the

success of a library but in our experiencethe most important contributor to thelibrary's success is the staff. There is apopular slogan in China that the humanresource is the “first resource” or the “firstproductive force.”

This is particularly true for the knowledge-intensive library profession. The experienceof the Shanghai Library has shown that themost important wealth of the library is notits grand building, or its advanced hardware,or its numerous resources, but its talentedpeople. It is the creative team, who makesthe best of the grand building, the advancedhardware, and the numerous resources, formeeting the fast growing demands of theusers locally and internationally. Byevaluating the abilities, accomplishmentsand performance of our staff, weunderstand the success of our library. ■

Dr. E. Rama Reddy, Librarian,University of Hyderabad,Hyderabad, India

At our university, we focusassessment on how well

we support — via provision of informationand resources — our community members’teaching and research needs. Success of thelibrary is always measured by achievement ofthis key objective.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Library at theUniversity of Hyderabad is a highly successfuluniversity library. How exactly are we measuringour success? In this ICT age, when goodinfrastructure exists, as in the case of ouruniversity, high usage is a hugely importantand defining factor in assessing a library’ssuccess. High utilization of resources impliesthat our users’ information needs are beingmet and reflects the accuracy of our resourceselection policy. How do we ensure highusage of our e-resources? Running frequentuser awareness programs, sometimes incoordination with publishers, providingadequate and relevant information, and moreimportantly providing accurate linking fromthe library website are some of the supportactivities carried out by our library. ■

Madeleine Lefebvre, UniversityLibrarian, St. Mary's University,Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

The most importantcriterion I use to measure

success at our library is the terms in whichthe library is described, whether by word ofmouth or in print. Positive word of mouthfrom students, faculty, staff, administrationand the external community signals ourgeneral approval rating.

The comments might be about resources,services or the whole operation, but whenthey are expressed in other contexts aswell as directly to the library, I know thispositive image will keep our profile highand benefit us in budget and strategicplanning discussions. ■

During 2004, ScienceDirect staff workedwith the libraries of Dartmouth College,New York University, the University ofCalifornia, San Diego, and the DahlgrenMemorial Library at Georgetown UniversityMedical Center, Georgetown UniversityInformation Services, to pilot Shibbolethtechnology on the ScienceDirect platform.Pilots were a resounding success and sincethe end of last year Shibboleth authenticationhas been available for ScienceDirectcustomers in the US. Library Connectcaught up with Jerome McDonough,Digital Library Development Team Leaderat the Elmer Bobst Library, New YorkUniversity, to find out about his experiencesin implementing Shibboleth at NYU.

LC: What made you decide to look intoShibboleth authentication?

Jerome McDonough: Our first pushtowards Shibboleth was a project withNew Word Records to provide access totheir complete catalogue of music as anonline subscription service. New WorldRecords wanted to provide users withvarying levels of service (e.g., a facultymember may be able to download musicwhereas an undergraduate might not).They wanted to be able to rememberusers between different uses of thedatabase, so when someone is using thedatabase they can set up a series of playlists that can be accessed at a later date.And they wanted to be able to do this fora number of different users, accessingthe system from a variety of institutions.The need to identify different classes ofusers, from different institutions, and tooffer differential service, while leaving inplace the sort of privacy controls thatlibraries would expect for their user base,meant Shibboleth was the way to go.

We knew about other potential benefitsof Shibboleth in terms of addressingissues of single user sign-on to a varietyof systems and that also gave us a pushto get Shibboleth up and running.

LC: Is Shibboleth something thatinterested NYU as a whole, beyondthe library?

McDonough: Yes, definitely. That’s oneof the areas where we’ve seen morepayback than we thought. Now wehave the framework in place, we’restarting to look at it for use with avariety of homegrown systems.

“Can’t you make it so I just log in onceand then I get access to all of theseresources?” is a familiar complaint tolibrary and central campus IT. UsingShibboleth we can make this happen.A user can log into the Database ofRecorded American Music, a localsystem, and move to ScienceDirectwithout needing to log in again. Alreadyauthenticated as NYU users againstour own system, that authenticationcarries over to Elsevier. It’s a huge win:We can offer our users the ability tosign in once. They don’t have toremember multiple passwords, IPspaces or proxy servers. And we don’thave to provide IT support for that.

LC: You’ve obviously implementedShibboleth for systems beyondScienceDirect. Have you been workingwith other publishers?

McDonough: Elsevieris the onlypublisher so far. Ourefforts have focusedon implementingShibboleth for localsystems and settingup other universities as Shibbolethusers for resources like our Databaseof Recorded American Music. We’vebecome a publisher in that regard —providing access to universities usingShibboleth and allowing their users tolog in to our system.

LC: When you first started implementingShibboleth what were the practicalthings you considered from thelibrary’s perspective?

McDonough: It’s not really somethingwe thought hard about at the time butas we move toward a system in whichwe’re providing authentication services forfaculty, students and staff we findwe’re interacting with central campus ITservices in a way we never have before —asking for access to, and changes to, theirentire campus directory system tosupport new attributes we want to putin place. Implementing Shibboleth hasforced the library to take an enterpriseview of the systems it puts in place, and

10


Success Story: Single Sign-onEnters Realms of Reality at NYU

Chris Jasek of Elsevier’s User-Centered Design Groupanswers your usability questions.

Analyzing your site's Web server logs can give you valuable information about how often certainpages are being used and the common paths that users are taking through your site. Thesestatistics, although valuable, can't tell you why a certain page is getting a lot or little use. Perhaps aparticular Web page is getting a lot of hits because users really find its content useful, or maybe usersare reaching it in error due to poor navigation. Usability testing can provide you with the "whys"behind the statistics. Usability tests typically measure:

1) Effectiveness — Are users successful in accomplishing the key tasks the site was designedfor or do they often make errors?

2) Efficiency — How quickly can users accomplish tasks?

3) Satisfaction — Do users enjoy using the site? Would they do so again?

4) Learnability — How easy is it for users to learn to use the site?

Observing users directly use your site during a usability test is the best way to understand howthey are using it and how much of a success it really is. For more information about usability testingI recommend the Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Testsby Jeffrey Rubin. ■

Jerome McDonough

What Metrics Would You Recommend WhenAssessing the Success of a Website?

we now interact more strongly and moreregularly with campus IT.

LC: That must offer benefits?

McDonough: Overall, it’s been a definiteplus. We have closer relationships inplace and day-to-day business goes a lotmore smoothly. There’s always a learningperiod though, while you get used toeach other’s styles and figure out whateach group can and can’t do.

We have a great campus IT organization —interested in learning the library’s needsand quick at figuring out what we wantto deliver to our users. They’ve been justas enthused about Shibboleth as us.

LC: Now that Shibboleth is available,how are you promoting it to your users?

McDonough: We’re trying to make thisprocess as seamless and invisible to usersas we can, operating on the assumptionthat ultimately they don’t care muchabout how they are authenticating. Theydo care that it’s easy and they care aboutcontrol of their personal information andhow it’s released. We haven’t yet donemuch work in terms of opening upusers’ information or giving them thetools to control its release.

As we move forward, we’ll startadvertising these aspects to faculty andstudents but until we have the tools inplace to allow users to successfullymanage their own information, we’renot going to release much attributedata. So far, we haven’t done anyaggressive campaigning and we’regoing to wait until we have these toolsbefore any major push to deliverShibboleth services outside of NYU.

LC: Have you had any feedback so far?

McDonough: A few comments. The onenegative we’ve heard relates to the factthat the Shibboleth authenticationprocess involves a variety of http redirectsbetween various servers; this can beconfusing to the user when trying to getin for the first time. Other than that wehaven’t heard many complaints and we’vemodified content on the authenticationWeb pages to make it clearer where the

user is in the process, and why they aremoving around.

LC: It sounds as though your experienceof Shibboleth has been really positive.Would you recommend it to other libraries?

McDonough: Definitely. The more peopleadopt Shibboleth, the greater the benefitsfor all of us. One key thing people needto pay attention to: Shibboleth really isan enterprise level authenticationmechanism. It’s difficult to implement on aminor test basis. Libraries have to view thisas collaboration with the entire university.To have the directory information available

for the Shibboleth authentication systems,you must have access to the centralcampus directory. If you want toincorporate new attributes into thecentral campus directory, all of a suddenit’s no longer just a question for thelibrary. Can the IT people support it?How will the information to be collected?How will it get into the directory system?Shibboleth affects the entire campus.

Issues around policies on release ofattributes must involve inclusivediscussions about what informationmight be available through a directoryservice. Is there information that can’t bemade available? In the NYU context it’snot just the Bobst Library that might usethe technology, there’s also the medicallibrary operating under HIPAA legalconstraints. What’s applicable to us maybe problematic for them.

LC: Any advice for libraries thinkingabout Shibboleth?

McDonough: We found it useful startingwith a pilot project with a relatively smalluser base. It allowed us to work on

getting bugs out of the system before wehad a huge number of users signed on.Launching with a local information serviceand providing information within yourlocal community allows you to putmechanisms in place, play around withthem, and get control of the different partsof the system. Then you can move on toa project supporting a larger user base.

LC: Anything else to highlight?

McDonough: One area which wasa little more time consuming than weanticipated was preparing to join theInCommon Federation. Ensuring

compliance with the federation'srequirements meant working with ourlegal and IT departments to make surewe had appropriate policies andprocedures in place for managingand protecting user information.

LC: Have you carried out usabilitytesting for Shibboleth?

McDonough: We’re in the middleof that now actually. The MellonFoundation funded our work on theDatabase of Recorded American Musicand they require usability testing of thewhole system. Shibboleth authenticationis part of that. We’re hoping to finish theusability report this summer.

LC: Finally, how was your experienceworking with ScienceDirect?

McDonough: It’s been successful bothin terms of our interactions withElsevier and the implementation itself.Our contacts at ScienceDirect havebeen great at providing us withinformation and keeping us appraisedof new developments. ■



“ScienceDirect can currently support one federation at a time, but as the internationalinterest for Shibboleth increases — federations already exist in Switzerland, Finlandand The Netherlands — the need for ScienceDirect to support multiple federations willbecome essential. Over the past year, we've worked with various communities todetermine how we can best help users navigate in a world of multiple federations. As aresult, we will implement support for multiple federations on ScienceDirect in July 2005,and we're looking forward to working with many more of our customers to makeShibboleth a reality for users of our content across the globe.

”— Niels Weertman, Product Manager, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Activities Abound at ALA MidwinterJanuary, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

This year’s ALA Midwintersaw plenty of activity on the Elsevier booth. Delegates mayhave noticed the Scopussweaters worn by our team.

The topic of the 7th ElsevierDigital Library Symposium,moderated by Karen Hunter(far right), was archivingrare and historic digitalmaterials. Speakers included(left to right) Richard Horton, Editor and Publisher of TheLancet; Chet Grycz, CEO of Octavo Publishing; and PaulGherman, University Librarian at Vanderbilt University.

Paul Gherman described the history and development of videonews digital archives at Vanderbilt University. Major Americannetwork news programs have been archived at Vanderbilt andcopies of evening news segments are available on interlibraryloan. Chet Grycz presented a display of digitizing rare andhistoric books using software and equipment from Octavo. Hedemonstrated the ability to zoom in on portions of the scannedpage to see minute details, often unobserved by the humaneye. Richard Horton spoke about the importance of digitalarchives to the public and historical record, as well as in newdiscoveries and the advancement of medicine. The Lancetdigital archives now go back to volume 1, issue 1.

Left to right: Warren Holder,University of Toronto; RichardSweeney, New Jersey Instituteof Technology; and AmyKnapp, University ofPittsburgh, discussed theirexperiences as ScopusDevelopment Partners.

At the LC EditorsSession, potentialauthors heard fromLIS journal editorsabout how to getpublished. A livelyQ&A followed.Left to right: ChrisPringle, LIS Publisher,Elsevier; John Carlo Bertot, Government Information Quarterly;Connie Foster and Beverly Geer, Serials Review; Tefko Saracevic,Information Processing & Management; Peter Hernon, Libraryand Information Science Research; and David Kohl; Journalof Academic Librarianship. ■

Third Annual CAT Forum Tackles eLearningJanuary, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Elsevier’sCustomers andTechnology (CAT)Group bringstogether digital-informationexperts fromaround the worldand helps forgesolutions to challenges facing researchers, libraries and publishers.This year’s forum focused on eLearning and digital archives.

Vijay Kumar, Assistant Provost and Director of AcademicComputing at MIT, delivered the keynote talk, “The Future –Technology Enhancements of Teaching and Learning.” Hiscomments covered MIT’s use of iLabs, tablet PCs and MagicPaper software, as well as the championing of open courseware.

Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian for Collectionsand International Programs, gave an update on some newinitiatives at Yale and talked about the emerging role of thelibrary in instruction. From Harvard, Dale Flecker, AssociateDirector for Planning and Systems, discussed issuessurrounding the use of digital library content throughcourse management systems. Other speakers includedRobert Zotti, Program Director Online Learning/CPE atStevens Institute of Technology, and Warren Holder,Electronic Resources Coordinator at the University ofToronto. Contact Geoff Adams at [email protected]

for more information. ■

Scopus a Hit at Information OnlineFebruary, Sydney, Australia

Elsevier customersattended an exclusivebreakfast launch event for Scopus,offering a sneakpreview before a fulldemonstration of theproduct was unveiledat Sydney Online.

The booth was abuzzwith enquiries, as librarians gathered answers for the“Scopus. Find Out.” contest. The winner of a Casio digitalcamera was Ms. Lucy Cartmel from Monash University.

Throughout the show, librarians could be seen on theexhibit floor sporting Scopus badges as part of the“Be Spotted” campaign. ■

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It All Started in Karlsruhe …February, Karlsruhe, Germany

February saw the start of theroll out of Scopus in Europe,the Middle East and Africawith the first Scopusroadshow in Karlsruhe.Our picture shows Joris vanRossum, Scopus ProductManager Content (left), talkingwith participant Jaime Acevedo-Alvarez of the FraunhoferInstitute (right). Andrea Schweikert, Director Global SalesScopus commented, “I was impressed by the interest anddepth of questions we got from librarians and lookforward to many such events in the region.” ■

GPS Aids PALINET/Elsevier Team EffortFebruary, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, USA

West Virginia WesleyanCollege was just one of thevenues reached whenElsevier teamed up withPALINET to bring informationto its members. PALINET isa cooperative memberorganization for libraries in

Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey andMaryland. During five events in West Virginia andPennsylvania, Elsevier representatives spoke with more than30 academic and corporate institutions about Scopus andother products. Chris Martire, Manager of CooperativePurchasing with PALINET, was instrumental in planningand delivering the programs. She expressed her thanks toElsevier for sponsoring “such an informative and user-friendlyroadshow and … for ensuring we had the GPS route planneron hand to keep us on track through our journey!" ■

Building the Digital Collection, IFLA/RSCAOFebruary, Damascus, Syria

An LC seminarattended by 65Syrian librarianswas included inthe program ofthe InternationalFederation ofLibrary Association(IFLA/RSCAO)‘sevent at the Asad National Library in Damascus — the firstdigital library congress held in Syria. ■

In a Click of a Mouse! Four-City Scopus Launch in IndiaFebruary, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore andHyderabad, India

Librarians and library directors fromfour major Indian cities attended Scopuslaunches in February. In New Dehli,Professor Arun Nigavekar (pictured right),Chairman of the University GrantsCommission (UGC), launched Scopusto the invited gathering. His speechhighlighted the goals of the UGC.Equity of access is key to the UGC’s vision; no matter what partof India a researcher may be from — Thiruvananthapuramin the south or Gauhati in the northeast — it’s imperative theycan access quality information.

Professor Ashok Raina, a renowned string theory scientist fromIndia’s top fundamental research institute, the Tata Institute ofFundamental Research, and Professor Gangan Prathap, ScientistIn Charge, Centre for Mathematical Modeling and ComputerSimulation, performed the honors in Mumbai and Bangalorerespectively. Dr. Prathap’s recent paper on research assessmentdescribes a study for which he used Scopus extensively.

Guest speakers also included Dr. S. Krishnan from theNational Chemical Laboratory and Dr. E. Rama Reddy fromthe University of Hyderabad. Both were invited to sharetheir experiences as Scopus customers. ■

Library Connect Seminar for Canadian ResearchKnowledge Network (CRKN)February, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Left to right:Charlotte Stewart,McMaster University;Lorraine Busby,University ofWestern Ontario;Tony Horava,University of Ottawa;and John Teskey,University of New Brunswick take part in a panel moderatedby Ben Schmidt, Technical Director, CRKN. The LC seminar,attended by 28 librarians representing 13 universities and 2consortia, provided a forum for sharing information, receivingfeedback, and discussing topics of interest to the CRKN.

One topic with particular resonance was the changing role ofthe librarian in the digital environment. With users accessinginformation from their workstations rather than coming into thelibrary to browse and read, and similarly, with researchers nowdoing their own searches, it’s becoming increasingly difficult forlibrarians to understand users’ needs and priorities. ■


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Elsevier Science and Technology is one of the two Elsevierpublishing divisions, the other being Health Sciences. For S&T'sdynamic new CEO, Herman van Campenhout, getting to knowhis staff during his first few weeks with the company has beena number one priority. He's made a big dent in this task alreadyand a big impression on us. Watch out librarians, he'll beconcentrating on making connections with you next.

LC: What were you doing before you came to Elsevier?

Van Campenhout: In 2001, I joined Reed BusinessInformation BV as CEO for the Netherlands. Before that, I waswith the Royal Dutch Shell group for 17 years. At Shell, Iworked in all kinds of jobs, most of them abroad — in Europe,South America, and Africa. I began my career there in salesand marketing, and later moved into general management.

LC: Why did you want the job of CEO for Elsevier Scienceand Technology?

Van Campenhout: Two reasons. The first is that Elsevier isa truly global business, even more global than many other“global” companies; we’ve got connections everywhere. Andwe’re in a business that makes a difference in the worldthrough the proliferation of scientific and medical knowledge.What really appeals to me is that it’s a business that’s not justa business; we have a meaningful connection with society.People talk about publishing, it’s important; it’s not like sellingcookies. We have contacts with many stakeholders throughoutsociety — with the scientific community, with librarians. Whatwe do is important and the people we connect with make a realdifference in the world.

LC: What’s your vision for Elsevier in the immediate future?

Van Campenhout: I’ve only been on board since Januarybut my starting point has been to get connected with theElsevier community. That means traveling around a lot,talking with as many of our staff as possible, introducingmyself to management teams and speaking with people intheir offices. I’m doing this to make sure I really understandthe business and really get to know the people who work forElsevier. I know it sounds like a bit of a cliché but it’s true: Inthe end, we depend on our people and that’s why we have tolisten carefully to them. It’s not the buildings, it’s not even thebrand names, it’s what’s between the ears of our staff. So, Ithink it’s very important to listen to their input.

Next, I will make sure that I get in touch with the outsideworld. That means librarians, editors, researchers —anyone who contributes to, buys or makes use of our

products — to make sure I knowwhat makes them tick.

My vision for Elsevier is to comeup with new and innovative ideas,building on the high-quality productswe have, and, of course, to grow ourbusiness so we see substantiallyhigher than average market numbers.Exactly how am I going to that? Ask me in a few months.

LC: When you think of Elsevier, what are you most proud of?

Van Campenhout: Our people and the products, really. Theproducts are top notch and nobody denies that. And we havevery good staff. They want to make our organization work,and they’re highly qualified to do that. Those are things thatmake me proud.

LC: What do you think are the major challenges we face?

Van Campenhout: Our world is changing very quicklyaround us. The main challenges are to do with repositories,open access, web posting and search engines. What’s importantthough is how we work together with colleagues — fromdiverse fields — involved in these areas. I believe that inthese challenges we will find fantastic opportunities.

LC: We’ve heard customer focus is particularly importantto you and the Elsevier Board. Can you say a few wordsabout that?

Van Campenhout: At the end of the day, our customers payall our paychecks and it’s really important to know what’sgoing on with them — to know what they really think, to knowwhat their wishes and desires are. You can only know that ifyou go out to them and talk to them, if you see them, if youconnect with them. We should not get bogged down ininternal discussions. We all need to go out and see realcustomers and understand what makes them tick.

LC: What do you think are some of the challenges ourcustomers are facing?

Van Campenhout: I’m still learning, but the first thing librarianshave told me about is decreasing budgets. But further tothis, librarians and libraries are challenged with redefining theirroles and mission in a rapidly changing environment fueledby new technologies, new Internet economics, and evenpolitical policy. Most of the librarians I’ve met so far relishthe opportunity and excitement that these challenges pose.It’s a very vibrant community.

LC: Do you think we have any challenges in common withour customers?

14

BEHIND THE SCENES

Getting Out and About:Listening is First Priority for New Chief Exec

Herman van Campenhout

Van Campenhout: One interesting challenge is thatpublishers and librarians are working so hard to create aseamless integrated experience for end users that we mightboth be obscuring our value to the reader. Scientists andstudents increasingly may not recognize the value of thelibrarians and publishers who are creating and deliveringthe information at hand.

LC: You attended ALA Midwinter in Boston. What did youtake away from that experience?

Van Campenhout: One thing that has stuck with me is howwell received Scopus was. I spoke to many librarians andhad the opportunity to have dinner with some of them.Those interactions gave me some excellent insights intowhat’s important to librarians and how they see the world.

LC: What do you think is most important when engagingwith customers?

Van Campenhout: Really listening to them. It’s the only wayfor us to know which products we should make and whatkind of customer service we have to give. You cannotestablish that from within a silo, from your ivory tower orfrom talking to your own staff. You have to engage withcustomers as well. We should be a 100% externally focusedcompany. Anything we do should be based on feedbackfrom our customers. We have to do research, we have toengage with customers, we have to show that we care, andwe have to care.

LC: Do you know any librarians?

Van Campenhout: Actually, although not a librarianherself, my mum has worked in a library for 20 years.

LC: What is your experience of libraries?

Van Campenhout: As a business and law student, I used thelibrary, of course, and I still go to libraries regularly with mychildren.

LC: What does a library mean to you?

Van Campenhout: Libraries mean “discovery” to me.Anyone who steps into or “clicks” into a library hasopened a door to learning — and that means opportunityand discovery.

LC: When it comes to your legacy for Elsevier you want tobe seen as “the man who …” did what?

Van Campenhout: … turned Elsevier into a 100%customer-focused business. Customers need to be at thebeginning and end of every conversation we have. ■

Full Moon is a new column from ourDirector of Library Relations, Tony McSeán,that aims to bring some light reliefto LC, and share funny stories andexperiences from across the globe.Contact us at [email protected].

lsevier needs a grown-up newsletterthat provides a good, professional read for the working librarian,as well as the product and company news we think mightinterest you. However, working in a library is not all customerservice objectives and mentor realization initiatives. Sometimes,when it’s your turn on the reference desk and the students decideit’s Bring your pet to the library day and the baby alligators getinto the water cooler, sometimes it’s just bonkers out there. Andat times like this you realise another article about maximizingyour customer interface potential is not what’s needed.

What Full Moon aims to provide is a section of LC slightly lessfirmly rooted in sanity’s subsoil. In particular, we’ll be invitingyou to share some of the crazier moments of library life —things that have lightened your working day. So, here we go.

They Asked for What?We are starting off, as is only right since that is whereyouthful enthusiasm is broken on the wheel of readermadness, at the public service desk. Everyone who has everworked on a reference desk has at least one example of aquestion that might make some sense on Planet Barmy butdown here just makes the working day seem to stretch outlike the Russian Steppes.

So please, send us the funniest and strangest questionsyou’ve ever been asked. We’ll print our favorites inforthcoming issues, and award a US $50 American ExpressGift Card for every question we print.

Just to whet your appetite, and to prove it’s not only librarianswho face this sort of challenge to the equilibrium, here are somegenuine queries received by the British Medical Association’sPress Office. It will come as no surprise that not all were answered.

■ Would it be OK if I asked my doctor out on a date?

■ On the subject of xenotransplantation, what does the BMAthink about the ethics of a patient meeting the animal inquestion before being transplanted with one of its organs?

■ Is there anyone who can tell me what men's nipples do?

And, most inexplicably:

■ Do you have a photo of a camping stove?

You get the picture. Please enter your submission online atwww.elsevier.com/libraryconnect and help brighten thehumdrum lives of LC editorial. ■


BEHIND THE SCENES

Full Moon

E

Jonathan Atkinson, Senior Marketing Manager, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, UK; Dju-Lyn Chng, Channel Marketing Executive, Singapore; Daria DeCooman, Account Development& Channel Marketing Manager, San Diego, CA, USA; Penny Emke, Marketing CommunicationManager, Endeavor, Des Plaines, IL, USA; Ginny Hendricks, Marketing Manager, Amsterdam,The Netherlands; Tim Hoctor, Senior Product Manager, Morristown, NJ, USA; Karen Hunter,Senior VP Strategy, New York, NY, USA; Chrysanne Lowe, VP Account Development & Channel

Marketing, San Diego, CA, USA; Tony McSeán, Director of Library Relations, Oxford, UK;Daviess Menefee, Director, Library Relations, Columbus, OH, USA; Chris Pringle, Publisher,Social & Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, UK; Nancy Stevenson, Senior Manager, BrandDevelopment, New York, NY, USA; John Tagler, VP Account Development & Library Marketing,New York, NY, USA; Managing Editor: Charlotte Dewhurst, Senior Account Development &Channel Marketing Manager, San Diego, CA, USA.

Library Connect Editorial Team

APRIL3 Library Connect Seminar, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

4 SLA Pharm/Health Division, Las Vegas, NV, USA

5-8 EDUCAUSE Australasia, Auckland, New Zealand

7-9 Association of College and Research Libraries,Minneapolis, MN, USA

8-9 Scopus Showcase at ACRL Minneapolis, MN, USA

7–9 Singapore and Malaysia Library Association 50thAnniversary, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

11-13 United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG), Edinburgh, UK

13 Russian University Library Conference, Yaroslavle, Russia

13 Corporate Library Connect Seminar, San Francisco, CA,USA

18-20 Library Conference Opatje, Croatia

28 Scopus Showcase, Elsevier, New York, NY, USA

MAY5 Library Connect Seminar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

15-18 Medical Library Association, San Antonio, TX, USA

16-17 Scopus Showcase at MLA, San Antonio, TX, USA

18 Elsevier MLA Luncheon, Venue and Guest Speaker TBA,San Antonio, TX, USA (RSVP required)

19-20 Japan Medical Library Association, Niigata, Japan

24 Library Connect Seminar, Hanoi, Vietnam

24 -26 Inforum, Prague, Czech Republic

25 Library Connect Seminar, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

27 Library Connect Seminar, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

30 – 6/3 Libraries in the Digital Age, Dubrovnik, Croatia

JUNE1 I-EXPO, Paris, France

1-3 European Library Automation Group (ELAG),Library Systems Seminar, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

5-8 Special Libraries Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

5 Elsevier SLA Dessert Reception, Hockey Hall of Fame,Toronto, Ontario, Canada (RSVP required)

6-7 Scopus Showcase at SLA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

15-18 Canadian Library Association, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

16 Korea Library Director's Forum, South Korea

25-28 American Library Association, Chicago, IL, USA

26 Elsevier ALA Dessert Reception, Sofitel, Chicago, IL, USA(RSVP required)

26-27 Scopus Showcase at ALA, Chicago, IL, USA

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