The following evaluation was conducted by Dawne Tortorella in June, 2017 as the MAGIC consortium was evaluating inclusion of BiblioBoard consortium‐wide in the Enterprise OPAC. These findings were relevant in 2017, but should be reexamined. Surfacing BiblioBoard e ‐ resource collection through consortium discovery platform (SirsiDynix Enterprise) …the Good, the bad, and the ugly As you hear the tune of Ennio Marricone echo, this overview provides detail on the opportunities, challenges, and realities of integrating e‐resource collections into catalog discovery systems. Opportunity ‐ From the RAILS website (https://www.railslibraries.info/services/biblioboard) We've partnered with BiblioLabs to bring your patrons a collection of e‐books that's available to any Illinois resident. 1. Recovering the Classics featuring public‐domain classics from world literature, with modern cover images 2. Popup Picks featuring titles that will change quarterly and will include hand‐curated e‐books from expert librarian curators 3. The Bodleian Library collection featuring items from Oxford University's Bodleian Library 4. The Biblioboard Core collection featuring articles, images, books, etc. spanning a wide range of topics There is no limit on simultaneous use; items in the collections can be read by 1 or 100 patrons at the same time. This means no hold queues and no waiting for titles. Challenge – Libraries hearing about the BiblioBoard collection want to include those e‐books and resources in their patron search and retrieval systems. This requires either loading of individual titles as e‐books in a catalog system (difficult, time‐consuming, and error prone) or providing access to the collection through a provider/vendor knowledge base that is configured by the ILS vendor (or tools they provide) from a collection set provided and maintained by the content provider. In a standalone environment, it may be feasible to select specific titles and include those in the catalog. For large consortium, this is not a practical solution. Only collections supported through content provider/ILS vendor managed knowledge base collections are feasible for large‐scale deployment. Configuration/Cost – SirsiDynix’ Enterprise system is used by several large consortia in the RAILS membership. BiblioBoard and SirsiDynix announced in December that an eRC connector for the BiblioBoard collection was available. This is a mandatory prerequisite for inclusion in a consortium discovery system for e‐resources. The dynamic nature of 1
e‐collections and lack of consistent control numbers makes record loading directly into the catalog with adds/deletes/updates problematic. Only through a coordinated content provider/ILS vendor arrangement to manage knowledge base collections is this feasible. A strong secondary desire, if not a prerequisite, is that the collection be managed at the consortium level and not configured independently for each library. While possible in eRC, the reality is that this management process is item by item, checking for inclusion/exclusion. Therefore customization of a large collection may not be feasible for a staffing perspective. If collections can be segmented prior to connection, this may be a viable option for some collections. Another consideration is the cost of integrating these “free” resources into a consortium’s catalog discovery interface. MAGIC is an early adopter to test the viability of incorporating the BiblioBoard collection via eRC connector in SirsiDynix’ Enterprise. The cost of providing the BiblioBoard collection was $730 one‐time setup fee and an annual subscription of $1,500 for the eRC connector/content provider feed. MAGIC allocated $2,230 to this project to test viability. Analysis The Good… This evaluation highlighted the following observations: eRC Connector is available SirsiDynix had minimal problems connecting the collection (within 2 weeks of order) Collection can be configured once and deployed to all libraries (although selecting multiple libraries for inclusion can be a somewhat tedious) This collection does adhere to the desired standard of centralized collection configuration and deployment across members. While there were initial questions from SirsiDynix and BiblioBoard regarding authorization/access for the MAGIC consortium, this communication/access problem was quickly resolved. SirsiDynix installed the eRC connector for BiblioBoard within a couple of weeks upon order placement. Configuration The collection can be deployed to libraries through selection of individual library profiles. This means that only the one collection is configured and easily enabled for each library. 2
This also means that the consortium in whole needs to determine if the collection will be provided in total or individual titles reviewed/selected. For these shared collections which may need selection oversight, consortium need to consider how they will form, manage, and support this process. With selection and committee work comes added staff time allocated to making these resources available through the discovery interface. The following illustrates some of the decisions related to collection curation/management. 1. Total items in collection – 38,059 2. Example of a rare resource which could be valuable for someone studying the Boer War (published 1901) 3. Image of Theta Chi Homecoming 3
The Bad… While making the BiblioBoard collection accessible through eRC is relatively easy, the following observations show that incorporation into the discovery interface leads to a bad patron experience: 1. Library card authentication adds unnecessary obstacle to access 2. Search differences in the discovery system versus the primary content provider platform vary greatly 3. Collections that are arranged visually within curated sub‐collections lose browsing access and visual presentation when surfaced through discovery list‐based search results (this is further apparent when customized mobile apps have been developed for the content) Authentication When resources are accessed through eRC, patrons must be authenticated via library card/pin to access the resource. Finding a resource, the patron chooses to 1) view more details or 2) download the resource. Viewing more details can provide attentional quality content which varies greatly within this collection. 4
To download the e‐book, the patron must first authenticate using their library card/pin. Once logged in to the library account, the patron must respond to yet another dialog before the content is accessed. The BiblioBoard content shows the RAILS logo at the top (which could be confusing for a patron of a public library which is a member of MAGIC which is part of RAILS…). Patrons can 1) immediately start reading the e‐ book or 2) login with their BiblioBoard account which will track their titles. 5
The additional library card authentication creates more hurdles to reaching the content. Unfortunately, the BiblioBoard Sign In/Authentication does not “stick” – for every resource accessed, it requires sign in again. The obvious benefit of signing in with a BiblioBoard account is that it remembers your location in the resource. 6
Search result variability between platforms Direct search on the BiblioBoard platform, illustrates the difference between the Enterprise search results. The BiblioBoard search is far fuzzier, resulting in many more unrelated results. It presents those results in a visual presentation rather than text‐based title list as an OPAC typically provides. 1. Search for Fred Hampton 2. 102 results (exact same search in the Enterprise collection yielded 2 hits) Note: only 1 title in the collection is a true match 7
Collection Presentation Accessing titles through catalog discovery Enterprise, loses all context to curated content and browseable collections (e.g. Popup Picks). The BiblioBoard website provides this curated content structure. 8
The mobile app provides additional ease of accessing content. In a nutshell, context is lost through access via Enterprise. This collection is more suited to a browseable experience. Having the collection indexed within eRC actually detracts from the user experience of accessing the content. The Ugly… Using a discovery tool, such as Enterprise, highlights some of the ugly problems associated with e‐resource curation and management. These include: 1. Format inconsistency 2. Incomplete metadata and e‐resources lacking context 3. Duplicates 4. Overlap with other open source content Format Inconsistency 9
BiblioBoard’s collection is scattered across multiple electronic formats. Format compatibility is the largest point of frustration and for e‐resource consumers across all platforms/devices. From the Enterprise search, a patron could include/exclude format. However, it may not be clear what the distinction between BIBLIOBOARD PDF, BIBLIOBOARD EPUB, EPUB might be. Roughly 13% of the current BiblioBoard collection is comprised of standalone images Incomplete Metadata/Lacking Context A sampling of these standalone images show that the records have minimal context or metadata. The Theta Chi’s Homecoming Decorations item is illustrated in both an Enterprise search results detail (below) and within the BiblioBoard detail page which loads via “Download.” “View This” brings up the digital asset, an image. This metadata does not satisfy minimal requirements of IDHH/DPLA. 10
Recommend
More recommend
