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Starting, Strengthening, and Managing Institutional Repositories:A How-To-Do-It-Manual, by Jonathan A. Nabe. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2009. 169p. $85.00. ISBN: 978-1-55570-689-0.
The author begins the work with a description of what thesestorehouses of information are, taking great care to make clear therelationship between institutional repositories and scholarly com-munication. The manual is divided into two distinct sections.Within the first half the author meticulously maps out thesteps for building or expanding institutional repositories. ChapterOne leads with an interesting discussion of the role librariansmay play in the development and management of institutionalrepositories. Of particular note are the references made inthe following section titled, bThe Skills That Make It Work,Qwhere he emphatically comments upon the failure to promote theresource or acquire content to populate the repository as beingsignificant factors that may lead to a projects collapse. This wasfollowed immediately by another piece titled, bThe Skills ThatLibrarians Have,Q which emphasized their expertise in providingoutreach and the flair for marketing a vast array of libraryservices.
The business end of the development stage is tackled within thefollowing chapter titled, bPlanning, Budgeting and Staffing.Q Theauthor outlines the challenges awaiting those who embrace the taskof building an institutional repository. The importance of leadershipand staffing, are underscored to demonstrate the need for theirdevelopment in order to ensure continuity.
The third chapter titled, bInstitutional Repository Platforms,Qbegins with clear and concise methods for evaluating platformsused for creating repositories. The author's description of opensource platforms was refreshingly rooted in reality. His remarksbring to light the fact that though open source platforms may givethe user greater freedom to customize; it often comes with aprice. He also reviews commercial platforms for institutionalrepositories with the same balanced scrutiny. In Chapter Four,bPolicies and the Working Institutional Repository,Q the authorexamines the purpose of policies, and then follows with atreatise as to why they should be created to be broken. It is aninteresting juxtaposition of thought before the chapter delvesinto the outline of what issues these policies should address.The fifth chapter titled, bMarketing and Recruitment for theInstitutional Repository,Q is by far a critical one. Though marketingat the initial stage is an important part of the equation for thesuccess of such projects; without an ongoing campaign to supportthese repositories their survival would be placed in seriousjeopardy.
Toward the end of section one the manual touches uponcopyright issues as well as the arduous task of tracking a publisher'spolicies on distribution. Of particular interest is the chapter titled,bIncreasing Use and Assessment,Q which strikes a chord with thediscussion of the use of various types of assessment as a way todetermine the value of an institutional repository.
The second part of the manual titled, bSeven Real-WorldExperiences in Establishing an Institutional Repository,Q gives thereader an inside view of the development of existing institutionalrepositories. Each venture described in this section highlightsvarious points' addressed in the first half of the manual. Therecurring themes that stand out are the importance of manage-ment, promotion, and assessment.–Loretta Wallace, Business andEconomics Librarian, M.D. Anderson Library, University ofHouston, Houston, TX 77204-2000, USA [email protected].
doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2010.03.015
How to Give Your Users the LIS Services They Want, by SheilaPantry and Peter Griffiths. London: Facet Publishing, 2009. 192 p.$85.00. ISBN 978-1-85604-672-5.
The title of this book is nothing if not ambitious. Can anyone reallyclaim to know how to give library users bthe services they wantQ inthis age of information anarchy? Pantry and Griffiths deserve creditfor trying. They make a reasonable attempt to lay out the threats tolibraries (or bLIS ServicesQ) at the beginning of the twenty-firstcentury and provide a few useful (if somewhat broad) strategies forkeeping them relevant.
Most of us are already quite familiar with the threats. Users expecteverything to be online, and instantly, painlessly findable. They skimand hop rather than read. They are largely unaware of the library'ssubscription databases. They have little understanding of copyright.Decision-makers have little idea of what the library does and areincreasingly unlikely to see the need for a physical library orlibrarians. The migration of information from print to online haspushed the library out of view, dehumanizing and anonymizing thelibrary's work.
The focus here is largely on library users. Pantry and Griffiths urgereaders to define their users (both internal and external) and todetermine what their needs are and how they go about getting theinformation they require. They provide advice on exploiting usagedata (however limited and imperfect it may be), administeringsurveys and focus groups, conducting information audits, trackingchanges in user expectations, providing training and marketing tousers, translating lessons learned into strategic planning, and keepingabreast of future developments.
This book is short and straightforward, but it's a dry and somewhatrepetitive read. The tone is a bit corporate, and much of what theauthors have to say is fairly obvious to anyone currently working in alibrary. Much of the writing is indisputable but vague. The following istypical: bDialogue is the way forward, as is involvement. Involvingusers will increase understanding of the issues and constraints;involving and informing organized users N may well produceinnovative solutions or suggestways that funding canbe raisedQ (p. 42).
Although the book purports to address ball sectors of library andinformation work,Q special librarians will find it muchmore tailored totheir needs than academic or public librarians. Both authors havebackgrounds in special libraries and information management, andthat bias shows throughout. The writers are also British, but, althoughthere are some unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, that's less of anobstacle for the American academic librarian than the corporate focus.
The book has two appendices, one useful (an annotated bibliog-raphy of further readings), one less so (a list of addresses andwebsitesof international library organizations).
Some good advice from the book: survey not just library users, butnon-users; do as much as you can to hang on to existing customers(new ones are much harder to attract); give users more than theybelieve they have paid for; plan surveys carefully and judiciously(repeated questioning of users will lead to bsurvey fatigueQ); becomean institutional leader in copyright and intellectual property rightsmanagement; become your institution's go-to service for technologytraining; trumpet success; and adapt or die.–David Gibbs, Researchand Instruction, Lauinger Library, Georgetown University,Washington, DC 20057, USA [email protected].
doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2010.03.016
Content Licensing: Buying and Selling Digital Resources, byMichael Upshall. Cambridge, U.K.: Chandos Publishing, 2009. 200 p.$95.00. ISBN 978-1-84334-333-2.
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