Report examines business models for digital collections
Many museums and libraries are finding that digital technology offers new ways to fulfil their core missions of education, research, and cultural enrichment. However, as cultural heritage institutions forge into the new territory of digital programming, questions of what to put online and how to sustain digital collections are being hotly debated.
In February
2001, the Council on Library
and Information Resources (CLIR) and the National
Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) convened
a meeting to discuss how museums and libraries are building
digital collections and what business models are available to
sustain them. A group of museum and library senior executives
met with business and legal experts, technologists, and
funders to discuss the challenges that cultural institutions
face when putting collections online and to identify models
for sustainability that support the core missions without
contravening the internal
cultures of non-profit entities.
How does a digital enterprise affect the
institution?
A discussion summary focuses on the
following questions: How does a museum or library structure a
business model for an online enterprise? Given the costs of a
digital enterprise, can a single organisation achieve success,
or is collaboration necessary? How does a new digital
enterprise affect the institution, and what are the new
demands for staffing, technology, and marketing? And, finally,
what elements are necessary to build and sustain a digital
enterprise? On the basis of this discussion, participants
identified a range of concerns and suggested next steps to
address the short- and long-term needs of museums and
libraries.
Libraries' experiments with digital
conversion have yielded a wealth of experience about what
works and what does not. But while technical "good practices"
continue to be refined, libraries face other questions. What
purpose will these digitized collections serve over time? How
can they be integrated with existing collections and services?
How can they be sustained? The Digital Library
Federation and the Council on Library and Information
Resources, address these questions in Strategies for
Building Digitized Collections.
Author Abby Smith, director of
programs at CLIR, points out that selection for digital
conversion has been correctly termed "reselection." It is an
investment in existing collections for the purposes of
preservation or access or both. In reviewing the experiences
of libraries that have been digitizing for a decade or more,
she has found that such programs work best when their role
within a library's collection development strategy is clearly
understood and clearly articulated. "Every library, regardless
of size or mission, will need to determine for itself how and
when digitization will move from being an experiment to
becoming a collection-development strategy that is well
integrated into its daily practice," she notes. But she also
points to the challenges that libraries have encountered in
forming such strategies, since the real costs and long-term
benefits of digital conversion remain unclear.
Develop a sustainable
strategy
The report opens with points to
consider in developing a sustainable strategy. Subsequent
sections address identification and selection, institutional
impacts, challenges in evaluating costs and benefits, and
recommendations. The report is one in a series that focuses on
challenges in digital collection development. Previous reports
in the series have examined strategies for integrating
commercially available resources and Web-based resources into
library collections. Strategies
for Building Digitized Collections is available on
CLIR's Web site.
Managing the costs of commercial online
materials
A third research report from CLIR
and the Digital Library Federation looks at ways to reduce
costs while libraries spend more on commercial online
materials. Selection and Presentation of Commercially
Available Electronic Resources: Issues and Practices,
describes how a number of leading research libraries are
addressing this challenge.
Author Timothy D. Jewell, head of
collection management services at the University of
Washington, provides an in-depth look at how several research
libraries select, license, present, and support the use of
commercial online materials. Uncovering a variety of
practices, he identifies those that are proving to be most
effective integrating commercial online materials into library
collections. He includes a decision tool that emphasises and
supports strategic planning, and encourages careful
consideration of how libraries' functions and professional
staff are organised. He also supplies a reference tool, citing
working papers and operational guidelines that libraries rely
on but rarely "publish." Finally, the author frames an
important and practical development agenda by encouraging
libraries to collaborate in designing information systems
capable of organising the detailed and often dynamic
information they need to maintain about their commercial
holdings.
The Digital Library Federation is a
non-profit consortium of libraries and related organisations
that are pioneering the use of electronic-information
technology to extend collections and services. It operates
under the umbrella of the Council on Library and Information
Resources, which acts on behalf of libraries, archives, and
universities to develop and encourage collaborative strategies
for preserving and providing access to scholarly
resources.
How does a digital enterprise affect the
institution?