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Outsourcing Library Systems
Digital Libraries à la Carte 2009Tilburg University
July 28, 2009Annu Jauhiainen
The National Library of [email protected]
Contents• The Library Network of Finland; The role of the National
Library• Outsourcing
– Process – Reasons– Risks
• Finnish Experiences of Outsourcing– Hardware– ILS system administration– Plans for ILL
• To Outsource or Not to Outsource?
The Library Network in Finland
• The network consists of 4 library sectors– Universities, polytechnic colleges, public libraries, special
libraries
• Each sector has organized its own activities– Council + working committee structure– Chair person and secretary– Sector chairs have meetings together
• 3 library consortia in the country– Linnea2 – library system for universities– FinELib – national licensing and national IR portal– AMKIT – polytechnic libraries consortium: library system
issues, FinELib issues, etc.– Joint ILS consortium of university and polytechnic libraries
(= Linnea2 + AMKIT) to start in 2010
The National Library of Finland
• The National Library functions as a service and development centre for Finnish libraries with a duty to promote both national and international co-operation.
Services for the libraries
• It is also responsible for acquiring and preserving the national heritage in form of publications as well as maintaining its collections of research material and for providing access to them.
Services for the nation
• The dual role of the National Library: serving Helsinki University and serving four library sectors
=> Services for Helsinki University
Services for the Libraries
• Access to high quality information– National licensing – FinELib– National databases – National Bibliography, Union Catalogue, etc.
• Development of the digital working environment– Library system – Voyager, Aleph– Portal – MetaLib, SFX, MetaIndex– Digital Object management system – DSpace, DigiTool
• Impact assessment– Quantitative – library statistics for universities and polytechnics– Qualitative – surveys for both libraries as users, and for end-users
at libraries– Development of indicators
Administrative structure of the Finnish library network
THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATIONMinister of Culture and Sport Minister of Education and Science
Public libraries Universities and polytechnics & their libraries, National Library, National Repository Library
Municipalities
Planning Process of the National Library
• 3-year planning period – framework for activities; to be changed to a 4 year period
• Decision makers – the Ministry; the University; the Library
• The process– National Library negotiates with the Ministry of
Education – preliminary negotiations concerning national tasks (80% of the funding)
• Library sectors present at negotiations
– Helsinki University runs the budget negotiations– The library negotiates with the University – special
services for the university ( 20%)
Labor Division at National Level
• CSC - IT Centre for Science– FUNET – Finnish Academic network– User authentication (Shibboleth)– Servers, supercomputing
• National Library– Services for the libraries (infrastructure)
• Library system, portal, repositories, statistics db etc.
– Services for the nation• Long term preservation• Access to cultural heritage
• Helsinki City Library– Services for the public libraries and their users (“Ask the librarian”)
Future
• Major structural changes taking place in the network of universities and polytechnics, research institutes as well as in the public library sector
• New technologies emerging • Budgets diminishing
=> Need to rethink the division of labor, including outsourcing
What is the core task of the library?How should the tight budget be spent to get the most
benefit?
Current Working Environment(to be revised completely 2008-2012)
PORTALfor Information Retrieval
LIBRARYIntegrated System
DOMSDigital object mgmt
User
inte
rface
Present state and
challenges
Digi-arkistot (julkaisu-arkistot, Digitalia)
MetaLib
Meta
search
SFXlinking resolve
r
(journal articles and
ebooks)
Back e
nd
Owned resources Licensed e-resourcesLicensed e-resources
Other systems
i.e. Learning environ-ments
Museums and
Archives
Digital Archives
and Instit.
Archives
Local Library
Systems
Library Portal
Solution: New System Architecture
• Separating user interface from back end systems• Hiding back end systems from users
• Public interface will replace current user interfaces (library systems, portals, institutional archives, DPS…)
• Public interface: one installation, many institutions
Libraries Archives MuseumsThe FinnishFilm Archive
The National Digital Library
Back End Systems
Memory institutions Public Interface Front end
Long Term Preservation System
Indexes
Fro
nt
en
d u
ser
serv
ices
Local customizable user interfaces
Archives MetaLib
Metasearch
SFXlinking resolver
(journal articles
and ebooks)B
ack E
nd
M
an
ag
em
en
t S
yste
ms
Owned resources Licensed e-resourcesLicensed e-resources
Other systems i.e.
Learning environ-ments
MuseumsLocal
LibrarySystems
Current Working Environment(to be revised completely 2008-2012)
PORTALfor Information Retrieval
LIBRARYIntegrated System
DOMSDigital object mgmt
What is Outsourcing?
• Subcontracting a process to a third-party company• Involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-
day execution of a function to an external service provider
• Contractual agreement to define the service• Involves a fee
Process
• Strategic level decision: to outsource a function or to perform it in-house– Identifying and defining the activity
• Choosing an outsourcing partner => (EU) procurement process– Request for Proposal (RFP) – invitation to tender and
selection criteria/requirements– RFP dictates the structure and format of the supplier’s
response• “Best and final offer” (BAFO) vs. EU regulations of
sticking to the first offer
EU Procurement Process
• Type of process– Open – Restricted– Accelerated restricted– Negotiated
• Award criteria– Lowest price– The most economically advantageous tender in terms
of…
Contract Negotiations
• Contractual agreement to define how the client and the supplier will work together – The scope of the service: what is included and what is
not – Service level agreement (SLA)– The duties and responsibilities of each party– The (annual?) fee and extra services with their costs– The term of the contract; termination or renewal– Etc….
• Signing of the contract + proxies when necessary• Service commencement
Reasons
• Cost savings• Focus on core business• Operational expertise / best practices• Access to talent• Improve quality• Catalyst for change• Enhance capacity for innovation
Risks
• Misaligned goals between buyer and supplier• High supplier switching cost• Poor communication between buyer and supplier• Lack of supplier capabilities or resources or capacity• Poorly defined SLA• No single view of quality among stakeholders• Unclear definition of duties of each party
Finnish Experiences of Outsourcing
LINNEALibrary INformation NEtwork for
Academic libraries• The first joint integrated library system was purchased
and funded by the Ministry of Education in 1988 – 20 universities (including the National Library)– National Repository Library– Library of Parliament
• All university libraries of the country formed an informal network, using the same software, but each having a separate database and a separate server
• The Automation Unit of Finnish Research Libraries (created in the Ministry of Education in 1974, moved to the National Library in 1993) coordinated the network
Linnea2 Consortium (2000 -)
• Motivation for cooperation: will to work together, share resources, improve services, join forces, save money
• openness to new technical and organizational solutions, looked at from a new perspective
• Signed a contract with Endeavor Information Systems Inc (EISI) (February 2000)
• Bought a SUN E10000 server (June 2000)• Outsourced its maintenance to CSC – IT Center for
Science (June 2000)• In 2007 Sun E10000 server modernized into Sun
M9000– Sun M9000 hosts 50+ Voyager databases, Aleph
Union catalogue, Nelli portal (MetaLib/SFX) for 60+ libraries
Case 1: Outsourcing the Server Maintenance
• Decision to centralize: 17 servers -> one server• Centralization depends on
– available data transmission network– capabilities of the software– the state of the computer technology
• Hosting the server?
=> EU procurement process
EU Procurement Process
• Available service providers– CSC – a non-profit organization owned by the Ministry
of Education – University IT Centers– IT companies: IBM, Fujitsu, etc.
• Restricted EU Procedure with RFP
=> CSC made the best offer, the most economically advantageous tender (also the cheapest one!), and was chosen
Benefits of Outsourcing to CSC
• Major savings in workload & staff costs (centralization vs. decentralization)
• Improved maintenance coverage– 7 x 24 (also during holidays and sick leaves!)
• CSC staff have excellent UNIX and networking skills• Certain software tasks have been centralized to CSC, in
addition to the server maintenance
Tasks and Division of labour
Hardwaremaintenance
providerCSC
Customer organizations -
libraries
National Library of Finland
(service unit)
•Development of sw •Maintenance of sw
Third party systems vendors
Software vendor Ex Libris
•Coordination of system administration
•Coordination of cooperation
•Communication with Ex Libris
•Developing services•Integration of infrastructures
•APIs•Cooperation with NLF •Cooperation with libraries
•System administration•Tailoring services to their users
•Maintenance of hardware•Certain software tasks•Cooperation with hw vendor
•Cooperation with NLF•Cooperation with libraries
Case 2: Libraries Outsourcing ILS Systems Administration to the National Library
• Structural changes taking place in the network of universities and polytechnics require rethinking of labor division
• Lack of skilled system administrators: in some libraries the expertise may be held by just one person (or by no one!)
• Financial pressure – need to save money
=> A demand from the libraries to the National Library to offer the service
System Administration Service
• Wide interest among libraries• Three customers at the moment• Service tailored according to customer needs• One basic contract, with tailored appendices (esp. the
list of services included)• Fee based on the service level and (estimated) staff
working time– Additional services can be negotiated separately with
an additional fee
Service Description
• The system administration team at the NL replaces the system administrator at the library– No one at the library has access to the system
level/server– System level operation and contacts/communication
to CSC is NL’s responsibility • A contact person at the library: all communication to and
from the NL is to go via the contact person • Communication with the library’s customers is the
library’s responsibility
Case 3: ILL Hardware Outsourced to Relais International
• The Linnea libraries made a decision to buy Relais Enterprise ILL system from Relais International
• The hosted solution was chosen• The hardware side will be outsourced to Relais
International in Canada (“offshoring”)– Outsourcing is a part of the software contract
• Contract negotiation in progress
To Outsource or Not to Outsource?
Questions to Be Asked
• What is our core task? • What do we want to do ourselves?• What is our expertise?• Can someone else do some of the work better and
cheaper?
=> identifying the function to be outsourced
• Can we join forces together with others: centralize and outsource?
Starting the Process
• Do we need to follow the EU regulations?– Yes: structured process, easy to follow– No: you can follow the EU guidelines anyway!
• Harvesting possible suppliers • RFP: very important!
– The selection must be based on the requirements and criteria listed
• Objectivity!
Costs
• What is the cost of the function outsourced vs. performed in-house?
• Fixed costs or more variable pricing options?– What is included?
Contract
• The scope of the service: what is included and what is not
• Service level agreement (SLA)• The duties and responsibilities of each party• The (annual?) fee and extra services with their costs• The term of the contract; termination or renewal• Etc….
Thank you!