eBook Loans an etwist on a classic interlending service Bronwen Woods

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eBook Loans an e-twist on a classic
interlending serviceBronwen Woods Michael
Ireland, NRC-CISTI

• Presented by Michael Ireland to
• The 10th Interlending and Document Supply
  Conference,
• Singapore, October 30, 2007

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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• eBook Loan Service project from the CISTI
  perspective
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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About CISTI
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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Books at the beginning
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Wild times in lending history
King Ptolemy III of Egypt borrows books for the
Library of Alexandria
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Electronic books
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Why eBook Loans?

• Current scholarly book access models are limited
• Purchase books or eBook
• License eBook collections
• Interlibrary loan
• eBook loans are more accessible and economic
• Cheaper than purchase or licensing eBooks
• More efficient than print interlibrary loans

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Current state of print book loans
End user-initiated orders
End user delivery
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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Project Goals
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Challenges of the eBook Loan Project

• Solve the problem of how to loan e-books to
  external clients
• Barriers faced restrictive e-book licences and
  publisher locks prevent affordable access for
  temporary needs

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Partnership to achieve a common goal

• CISTI out-of-the-box solution to the achieve
  project goals by forming a collaborative
  partnership with an e-book aggregator,
  MyiLibrary.
• MIL had the rights to disseminate e-books through
  publisher agreement and could obtain ILL rights
  and wanted to increase its reach.

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Collaborative project management across the world

• The project management process was unprecedented
  for CISTI because it was partnering with a
  commercial entity located on another continent.

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Project Risks

• Main risks and complexities associated with the
  project from the CISTI perspective were
• The co-development of a new library service model
  with an external, commercial partner
• The geographical and organizational distances
  between the two parties
• The loading of the publisher metadata onto the
  CISTI Catalogue platform
• Client acceptance of the new business model
• Internal service procurement issues

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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Critical tasks

• In August 2006, a joint project team was
  assembled at CISTI and MyiLibrary to produce a
  new service model for lending e-books.
• To embark on this joint venture, two tasks
  critical to project success were completed
• A client survey (summer 2006 )
• 59 of respondents said yes they were
  interested in this service, sight unseen
• An agreement was signed between CISTI and
  MyiLibrary to implement the new service and share
  in the investment

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Division of responsibility

• MyiLibrary was responsible for
• Negotiating with the publishers to offer this
  loan service
• Making necessary changes to their system
• Providing the publisher e-book metadata
• Marketing and client support (shared with CISTI)
• CISTI was responsible for
• Technology architecture planning and business
  analysis
• Metadata loading and management
• Website interface design input and translation
• Marketing and client support (shared with
  MyiLibrary)

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Workflow
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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Lessons learned Communications

• Problem At times, the distances and
  preoccupations with other tasks resulted in slow
  communications and delays.
• Mitigation strategy The project steering
  committee, which included executives from both
  organizations provided support on decisions to
  allow the project to move forward.
• Learned Timely communications led to the
  resolution of key project road-blocks.

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Lessons learnedLoading problems

• Problem Some diacritics and table of contents
  publisher metadata provided by MyiLibrary was of
  poor quality delaying Catalogue record loading.
• Mitigation strategy MyiLibrary pinpointed the
  problem as occurring in the source metadata
  records. Some data was corrected on the spot
  with more corrections promised in future loads.
• Learned Given the relatively small number (6)
  of records involved affecting findability and
  with the promise of future metadata updates, the
  project team decided to accept the status quo and
  move ahead with project launch.

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Lessons learned Getting Publisher sign-on

• Problem Delays in signing publishers created
  complications because the publisher e-book
  records could not be displayed and offered to
  clients until the publisher had signed.
• Mitigation strategy CISTI loaded all of the
  records but had to keep unsigned publisher
  records suppressed from public view if they
  were not signed.
• Learned Because of the hard work of the
  negotiators, MyiLibrary signed on some of the
  worlds largest e-book publishers Springer,
  Elsevier and Taylor and Francis before the
  official launch.

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Lessons learned Authorizing users

• Problem CISTI and MyiLibrary had a
  disagreement over authorizing end-users accessing
  the eBooks. MyiLibrary wanted to create an
  additional end user password login. CISTI
  preferred not, wishing to put the emphasis on
  client usability and the minimization of
  barriers. MyiLibrary had a legitimate business
  concern about unauthorized use and also wanted to
  offer additional features to end-users - only
  possible if they had their own password.
• Mitigation strategy At the end, an agreement
  was reached on having no additional login with an
  understanding to re-visit the issue if there was
  proven abuse. Currently all eBook loans expire
  after four weeks and terms conditions state
  they are for personal use only.
• Lessons Partnership is about collaboration and
  compromise.

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Best practices

• Creating use cases at the outset of the project
• Maintaining a shared project task list
• Keeping an issues log
• Incorporating client feedback for future updates

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Findings

• The project was a success because
• Produced a new eBook loan service where all the
  stakeholders (CISTI, MyiLibrary, publishers,
  clients, users) reached a common goal to improve
  e-book accessibility.
• CISTI, as a public sector organization, and
  MyiLibrary, as a commercial enterprise, shared a
  vision and carried it through to a successful
  conclusion.
• A project conducted virtually over two
  continents succeeded in its goals and was
  completed on time.

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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Value Proposition for users

• eBook Loan Service allows the user to
• Find and obtain relevant scientific, technical,
  medical, business and social science eBooks from
  major e-book publishers
• No mailing wait, download immediately from
  
  email link to
  web browser interface
• Search and read eBook on line for 30 days
• Copy, paste and print a certain number of pages

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Value Propositions for libraries

• eBook loans allow libraries to
• Have immediate access
• Avoid mailing wait / no unfilled
• Borrow unlimited books
• Reduce loan processing costs
• Renew loans
• Forward eBooks to end users wherever they are
• Avoid recalls / late returns / lost books
• No annual eBook license or subscription required

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Advantage eBook Loans
NRC employees
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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Conclusions

• The eBook Loan Service project and the
  implementation of the service break the barriers
  of time, distance and cost.
• CISTI took a practical approach to increasing
  access to e-books through a collaboration with an
  aggregator and publishers.
• Fair use / dealing issues for e-books are not
  resolved by this service. The primary goal is to
  improve client access to e-books beyond the
  existing licensing and purchase models available.
  

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Next Steps

• Promote the service world-wide
• Facilitate other forms of payment beyond credit
  cards, working with other organizations such as
  OCLC
• Expand the service to include more publishers and
  other providers world-wide to ensure that users
  have the fullest range of choice
• Look for other opportunities to partner to
  achieve our goals

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The CISTI eBook Loan Project Overview

• From opportunity to launch
• Why eBook Loans
• Project goals, challenges, risks
• Project tasks and workflow
• Project lessons learned, best practices and
  findings
• Benefits to users and libraries
• Conclusions Next steps
• How it works

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Open Shopping Cart Payment Server
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Select an eBook and put in shopping cart
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View Shopping Cart
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(No Transcript)
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Enter Payment Details
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Send Email to enduser
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Email to Payer
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Email to enduser
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Et Voila! eBook Loan display features
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Take away thought

• What technology often does is help us re-invent
  situations which have already existed but are now
  ready for modernisation
• or moderation
• Graham Cornish, 2002

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Questions?
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Thank you

• Bronwen Woods
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• bronwen.woods_at_nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
• Michael Ireland
• Phone [phone]
• Fax[phone]
• michael.ireland_at_nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
• NRC-Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical
  Information (CISTI)