A distant ancestor of the Discovery Tool ...

In 2011, the Discovery Tool project team studied the features of the Discovery Services offered by the four main providers, namely SUMMON, EBSCO, Primo and WorldCatLocal.

Reports by sister organizations facing similar decisions were requested and read. The fact that OCLC did not market WorldCatLocal in Europe until 2011 meant that the views of libraries that took a decision last year or earlier were negative.

The team decided early on to focus on Primo and WCL. SUMMON was assessed as offering a less user-friendly environment, and is difficult to integrate with other library systems. In the view of the team, it is unacceptable to require users to log in before they can search with the EBSCO tool. Searching should be a facility that is available to everyone.

In the preparatory phase of the project, it seemed a good idea to construct a test environment for various products. The team decided against this, however. Even with a reasonable investment of time and resources, the test environments would not be complete, and would fall short in terms of essential components. Our aim is therefore to examine the system directly at another library, or via the providers.

During May and June 2011, it became clear that the products did not differ greatly in terms of the ease of finding digital content; advantages of one product over another were largely of a temporary nature. The main differences were in the possibilities for adjusting layout, additional functions (customization with apps), and compatibility of the software with existing library systems. Connections with the link resolver, the catalogue (of the physical collection in particular) and the information on availability of the material found, through a link with the loan status proved to be important and sometimes clear problems. These problems are also encountered by other libraries in the Netherlands that are in the process of implementing Discovery or recently introduced the Discovery tool or service. The situation varies slightly from library to library.

The project team is now focusing on these decisive aspects. An accurate picture has been obtained of the various options and the cost of licences. The budget made available by the IT Strategy committee will certainly be able to finance most of the costs.

The team’s activities in 2011:

• Demonstrations of Primo and WorldCatLocal in the library
• Visit to the Primo users’ day at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)
• Jan Feringa is in contact with UKB colleagues in the Netherlands who are involved with Discovery Services
• Peter van Rees recorded information from discussion groups
• Christina is in contact with ICS colleagues in the Netherlands with a primary or secondary involvement in Discovery Service projects (in particular VU University Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen)

Christina Elsenga

Groningen on a 17th century map by Sebastian Munster

This project began with a pilot study (April-October 2010), with the aim of formulating a protocol for digitizing various groups of material and making them available online, namely books and journals, and Greek papyri. These were chosen because it is expected that the majority of material that will be digitized will consist of texts and images. This instructive pilot study was completed successfully. The two collections can be found at facsimile.ub.rug.nl: Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis (Brinkman Catalogi and Nieuwsblad voor den Boekhandel) and Papyri Groninganae.

A great deal of work preceded the online publication of the collections:

• Preparatory work
  Advance planning and discussion is an important part of any project. In this case, agreements were made about all manner of aspects relating to the collection to be digitized. For this purpose we designed a form for recording essential data.
• Scanning
  During the pilot study we gained experience with scanning. We had Mens en Maatschappij (1925-2000) (the first journal for the ‘Diginedsoc’ project for the digitization of Dutch sociology journals) scanned at the Groningen Archives. Unfortunately, the Groningen Archives were unable to meet our requirements. We then requested a scan by GMS in Alblasserdam, who also put a collection of letters on microfilm for the Hemsterhuis Collection. Although the final result is good, we are less satisfied with other aspects of the work, so this choice may also need to be reviewed. The Groningen Archives scanned our collection of letters by Petrus Camper, and we are very satisfied with the result.
• Metadata input
  Diginedsoc involves a great deal of work, particularly on the metadata side (entering journal articles in RefWorks databases) Although many staff are working on this, the contribution is not sufficiently structured – a disadvantage of a project-based approach.
• facsimile.ub.rug.nl
  At the end of April 2011, CONTENTdm 6.0 was released. This coincided with Pieter van de Veen’s internship at the Library in May and June. Pieter made good progress uploading the other collections in 6.0. We hope that we can continue to request his assistance in the future. In the run-up to the publication of the papyri, there was close consultation with Prof. K.A. Worp, Emeritus Professor of Papyrology at Leiden. He gave his learned views on our papyri, and has brought international renown for the site. The site went live on 1 October 2012 [2011?].

The following collections have been published:

(part of/on the initiative of: University History = UH / Special Collections = SC / Faculties = FA)

• Brinkman catalogues 1936-1950 (FA)
• Nieuwsblad voor den Boekhandel [Newssheet for the Book Trade] 1940-1945 (FA)
• Fragments from a Music Manuscript (flyleaves Inc. 70) (SC)
• Letters of François Hemsterhuis (under development, will be part of the Hemsterhuis Collection)
• Papyri Groninganae (FA)
• Letters of Petrus Camper (under development, will be part of the Petrus Camper Collectie) (SC)
• Frans van Schooten Manuscripts (under development) (SC).

Financial overview (2011-2014)

Income

• Grant: € 250K
• Match funding by Library: € 50K
• Total: € 300K

Expenditure

• Personnel costs: € 175K
• CONTENTdm € 40K
• Scans/photos/server € 85K
• Total: € 300K

Alie Bijker

Library of Theology and Religious Studies

The ‘Ranking’ project (‘A project to support the position of the University of Groningen in rankings’) is one of the projects in the context of University funding ‘IT 2010-2014’. The content of the project proposal was finally approved in May 2011, after various rounds of the University committee responsible for funding. The funding was not yet approved at this time, partly because the relevant regulations were tightened at the last moment. A sum of € 180K was eventually budgeted for the project, 50% from the IT funding and 50% to be matched by the Library.

The project’s objectives are straightforward, involving first and foremost the one-time downloading of the metadata for all University of Groningen publications since 1970 (from a number of criterion databases, in particular Web of Science and Scopus) and uploading or linking these to Metis, with a link to the correct University of Groningen author. The linking process is estimated to be the most complicated and high-risk aspect of the project.

The project also involves examining the continuation of this download/upload procedure to include future University of Groningen publications so that, from now on, Metis can be fed more easily through the ‘preloading’ of publication metadata.

When the project proposal was considered by the Board of the University in the spring, the Board’s view was that, although the project’s objectives were worthwhile, it would be better if it were part of a project with a wider scope. Since this has still to be developed, the proposal is still awaiting official approval and the project has not been implemented.

Shortly before the summer, the outline of the Board’s wishes was communicated to Marjolein Nieboer and Peter van Laarhoven by Bert Verveld, director at the Office of the University. A proposal is expected for a project that assesses and streamlines the complete registration and presentation processes for publications of the University of Groningen, with an outcome based on the examples of: Wageningen Yield and RePub of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In fact, we are being asked to find a solution (or the starting point for a solution) for linking systems such as Metis (or its successor), the University of Groningen repository and MePa, and possibly systems such as PeopleSoft and the Office’s data warehouse. The MT sees this as a challenging task that aligns closely with what is described in the vision document as ‘communicating information from inside to outside’, and a sensitive task for which there are high expectations.

In the first few months of 2012, a new project proposal will be formulated on the basis of initial discussions within the University and working visits to Wageningen and Rotterdam. The original Ranking project will be incorporated in the new proposal. Jan Feringa and Jan-Herman Veldkamp will take the lead on behalf of the Library, and Jules van Rooij of AZIS will represent the Office. Ulco Kooystra and Peter van Laarhoven will contribute through the project group and steering group as necessary. It is not yet clear when the project proposal will be submitted. March 2012 – not earlier – appears to be a safe assumption.

Peter van Laarhoven

Library of Behavioural and Social Sciences

The E-book working group held five meetings during 2011. The main purpose of the meetings was to share knowledge and inform each other about the various aspects of online e-books.

The following points were discussed at the meetings:

• Orientation on the various e-book platforms: A distinction is made between publisher platforms and DRM platforms.
• Our preference is to order e-books on the publisher platforms, because there are hardly any restrictions in terms of print and download facilities. We order individual titles from a number of publisher platforms: (Cambridge Books Online); Elsevier e-books (Science Direct); Wiley/Blackwell e-books (Wiley Online Library); Walter De Gruyter e-books (De Gruyter Reference Global).
• The DRM platforms (DRM = Digital Rights Management) all have specific conditions relating to price, multiple simultaneous users, readability and the permitted number of pages that can be printed and downloaded. We order books from DRM platforms if they are not (yet) available from the publisher platform (ebrary, MyiLibrary). A separate group of DRM platforms uses the credit-point system, whereby a certain number of credit points is paid for a book – usually one point per day. The advantage of this model is that more than one user can consult the book at the same time (EBL, Dawsonera).
• The advantages and disadvantages of each platform have been thoroughly assessed. This information is essential in order to select the most appropriate platform for the required books. It should be emphasized that we prefer to order from a publisher platform, but if the title is not available we order it from a DRM platform.
• The ordering procedure for e-books: the advantages and disadvantages of the platform types and experiences with ordering e-books were discussed in detail.
• EBL and its possibilities. One of the meetings focused on EBL. Each book purchased has 325 credit points per year. A one-day loan costs one point per borrower. The books can be borrowed by more than one reader at the same time. The book can be read online and downloaded as a PDF file. EBL offers the option of PDA (patron-driven acquisition). If required, the full EBL list is made available to patrons, and the collection is built on the basis of their borrowing history and suggestions for acquisitions. We were allowed to make use of this option by way of a trial.
• Trial with handhelds at the Faculty of Behavioural & Social Sciences: In order to assess user experiences with handhelds (devices for reading e-books), a trial is being prepared at the Faculty. Experiences with downloadable books from EBL will be an important aspect of the trial, in addition to experiences with books in PDF format from other publishers.

Which other subjects are included in the programme?

• Drawing up an overview of characteristics of various platforms and posting it on BINT, the Library intranet.
• In connection with the previous point: how to inform users in an effective and efficient way about the possibilities offered by the platforms.
• Appoint a focus group for e-book use to deal in greater depth with the various aspects of the user experience.
• Develop the trial with PDA, preferably with a publisher platform such as Brill, Cambridge or Springer. Several scenarios are possible, but this basically involves the publisher making an e-book list available for a specified period. The most-used books from the list will ultimately be purchased for a pre-agreed sum.
• Evaluation of e-book use with the help of usage statistics.
• Trials with new packages/platforms.
• What are the experiences with e-book packages for which we hold a licence? (including Brill Classical Studies, ebrary History & Political Science, Palgrave Connect Political & International Studies, Oxford Handbooks, Cambridge Companions, Thieme e-book Library).

Alie Bijker