Open access/scholarly communication

Open access journals make scholarly, peer-reviewed articles freely available via the Internet. Open access gives ILL practitioners the ability to provide articles that our patrons have requested quickly and free-of-charge by sending the URL or a copy of the article to them. Open access can also provide a location for previously hard-to-track-down items such as grey literature. However, until these open access sites are searchable through utilities such as OCLC, they are now an additional place to look in searching for items. While we are continually building more search tools such as ILLiad add-ons, as resources proliferate we need to be able to quickly and easily search them. It is in the interest of interlibrary loan to make sure the open access stays open by encouraging scholars at our institutions to consider publishing their research in open access journals or request copyright for those articles.

Legal issues

Legal issues which will be impacting international library loan include copyright and licensing. As discussed in the PEST/SWOT chapter, copyright is increasingly a concern when providing journal articles across borders. Copyright laws differ between countries and can keep appropriate payment from being made if one country’s laws require the borrower to pay and another country’s laws require the lender to pay. This situation may lead to publishers attempting to prohibit the international interlibrary lending of their materials. Licensing also plays a significant role in interlibrary loan, particularly in the epublication realm. While many ejournal agreements allow interlibrary loan, many do not. At this time, most ebook publishers do not allow interlibrary loan in their licensing agreements.

Digital issues

Digital issues include ebooks/ejournals, the digitization of print materials, programs such as the HathiTrust, Google Books and Internet Archive, books ‘born digital,’ institutional depositories and electronic theses. Ebooks/ejournals are part of a trend that is already affecting interlibrary loan. As noted, licensing agreements for these items often prohibit interlibrary loan. Even owning ebooks is not always possible as publishers often do not sell ebooks to libraries. When ebooks are available for interlibrary loan, quick and easy processes for fulfilling ILL requirements for these items are not yet in place. The more our book collections go digital, the less we may be able to loan to other libraries or borrow from each other.

While the HathiTrust, Google Books and Internet Archive make searching for full text of more materials possible, free access to these items may not be part of the deal. We are often put in the difficult position of locating a digital source for our patron but not being able to provide it to them. Access to these digitized items is still governed by copyright and often by membership in a group such as the HathiTrust and may also be limited by the year of the publication. Likewise, patrons see parts of what they would like to read but may be forced to purchase the entire item.

In many cases, where these items are available on the web, it is easy for interlibrary loan to provide copies to patrons. These items, such as books or streamed media, may never exist in paper and theoretically live a ‘perpetual life.’ But, will they always be available?

Institutional repositories are wonderful sources of materials for our users although again, they take extra searching to track their down their holdings.

Online dissertations and thesis are becoming a valuable addition to the items that we can provide to our patrons. In the past, providing these materials via interlibrary loan has been often impossible. Providing online using is great but again requires additional searching to track them down.

Big Deals

The Big Deal is an online aggregation of journals that publishers offer as a one-price, one size fits all package. Through a Big Deal, libraries purchase electronic access to all of a commercial publisher’s journals for a price based on current payments to that publisher. Annual price increases are often capped for a number of years. A Big Deal can allow the library to cancel paper subscriptions or purchase additional paper copies at discounted prices. Big Deals can be purchased by individual libraries but also by consortiums using collective bargaining power to lower the cost of these subscriptions.

For interlibrary loan it is imperative that an institution’s or consortium’s staff responsible for entering into these agreements understand the importance of including interlibrary loan rights as part of the licensing agreement. Further, embargoes which may deny access to the most current year or 6 months of a journal title, as part of the agreements should be avoided whenever possible; we cannot lend what we do not have access to. If all libraries wishing to purchase a subscription to a journal enter into an agreement allowing embargoes, thinking that libraries surely will have the title available, the title has the potential of becoming available to no one.

Big Deals bleed into the areas of licensing and the financial climate. No one institution can afford to buy these subscriptions themselves and must collaborate with other institutions in terms of both purchasing as well as in collaborative collection development. If a library purchases an item they must be sure that they have the right to let others borrow it from them.

Financial issues

Financial issues affecting international interlibrary loan include the overall world financial situation, different acquisitions models, as well as items that we cannot purchase. Will the world financial crisis drive up international ILL activity? Will our individual customer suffer as libraries have less money to pay for materials as well as to support interlibrary loan? Will interlibrary loan units need to put limits on the number of things we will borrow for a patron or how much we will spend borrowing any particular item? These financial barriers can affect the success of our scholars. Also to be considered is the fate of developing countries. Will their tenuous hold on academic resources be eroded as their countries deal with economic turmoil? The ‘have nots’ may get pushed farther away from being able to participate in international borrowing and lending. Additionally, increased costs of pay-per-view as controlled by publishers will also play a factor in how we can serve our users. Different acquisitions models include merging the functions of the acquisitions and ILL departments or implementing purchase on demand programs. Further, there will be some items that we simply will not be able to supply via interlibrary loan as they are not available for purchase by libraries such as some ebooks, iTunes and other proprietary formats.

Scenario 1: my credit card is my library card

Some of the key or distinguishing features in this possible or envisaged future might include:

The year is 2015. In answer to a frequently asked question, ‘Why can’t my library be more like Amazon?’ academic and public libraries have finally become just that. From a single web-based search interface, customers shop from a centralized catalog of print and electronic information held anywhere in the world. As soon as the ‘Get It for Me’ button is pressed, an intelligent agent corrects incomplete or erroneous bibliographic or citation information. The consumer chooses his/her preferred format and delivery method and enters his/her credit card number into a secure, centralized management system where all billing, payment, fees and permissions are handled. A valid customer credit card and address is all that is needed to complete the request. An automated message goes to a library or other document supplier able to fulfill the request and the item is sent directly to the customer. Although the default search can be set to go to a library, if no library is able to fill the request in the time and format required, it is automatically routed to Amazon or another commercial supplier.

In this scenario, libraries as traditional providers of information will continue to serve that function but now in far greater competition with for-profit enterprises that aggressively market value-added services such as fee-based research or translation assistance, instant downloads, digitization on demand, home delivery and enhanced digital quality. Libraries facing increased competition along with sustained pressure on budgets to recover the high but invisible costs of negotiating and processing requests and delivering materials are forced to adopt a transaction-based business model. By necessity, libraries become commercial document suppliers.

Open access/scholarly communication – in this scenario authors will continue to deposit original research into institutional repositories. Catalogued open access records will be imported into the single universal catalog for free download or a fee. Support for building and maintenance of the repositories may lag if costs to do so cannot be recovered by the host institution or organization. Individual libraries will each have to resolve how access and storage will be provided and at what cost.

Legal matters – customers have little interest in understanding the strong and restrictive copyright, licensing and Digital Rights Management (DRM) constraints that serve as formidable barriers to free access to materials. As libraries are aware, negotiation of these terms slows processing of requests. As a result, permissions and payments are automatically incorporated into pay-per-view transaction costs. As libraries take on a more entrepreneurial cost-recovery or for-profit role, the loss of first sale and fair use rights and privileges may become an unexpected outcome.

Digital issues – mass digitization projects and rapidly growing electronic book collections removed the problems of physical delivery of material. With all discoverable information also available in a digitized format, concerns about loss, damage, speed and cost of delivery are removed.

Access to this digitized content is available on a pay-per-view or rental basis. Costs of digitization, creation of enhanced bibliographic records, and reformatting for various digital devices are all included in the transaction fee.

Big Deals – in this environment, Big Deals may have less importance as libraries will have found other ways to defer the costs of the rising serial subscription pricing. Package deals for individual libraries, never a cost-effective exercise, will be of less importance as requests are at the individual item level. Because of financial concerns, libraries will not be able to comprehensively license serial content but license based on depth of coverage in subject areas rather than breadth of titles offered.

Financial concerns – drastically decreased budgets and increased customer demand for convenience and speed are the primary drivers for adoption of this model. The scenario recognizes that the frequently invisible, but not insignificant costs of interlibrary loan and document delivery can no longer be absorbed by individual libraries. The underlying assumption is that customers will be willing and able to pay for content.

Strengths – there are several advantages to this scenario. It is customer-focused, providing a seamless chain from discovery to delivery. Although libraries are not at the center of this model, they remain participants. Libraries have resources that people want to access. Greater use of both popular and little-used collections by information seekers, no matter where the customer is geographically located, maximizes individual library investments in collection and technology and provides a good return on investment in these tools. Fears about intended use of the material, loss, damage, payment, currency, delivery are removed when handled by a centralized, transactional system.

Weaknesses – libraries, in general, are not entrepreneurial businesses. Ecommerce will be a difficult philosophical and service obstacle to overcome. Libraries may find it difficult to determine prices to charge customers. Libraries may become more insular, losing a long history of cooperation and traditional service orientation in favor of the bottom line. The systems and processes that are imagined to make this model work do yet not exist. Libraries and other document suppliers will be reluctant to give up systems they are already heavily invested in to innovate and test.

Opportunities – with anxiety about who pays for loss, damage, delivery resolved by billing the customer, libraries will find it easier to share local resources globally without fear. In competition with commercial document suppliers to provide information to customers, libraries will improve internal processing for improved fill rates, turnaround and delivery times. To stay competitive, and be the first choice as a supplier, libraries will improve marketing of services and keep costs low.

Threats – by attaching a price to every information transaction, access will only be attainable by those who can pay for it, further widening the gap between rich and poor. Libraries will not accept the inherent inequities of this model and it may never be widely accepted or adopted. The ideals of global cooperation, resource sharing and fair use will not be easily relinquished.

Scenario 2: the golden age of the global library

Key features of this scenario are:

In this scenario, there is a renewed commitment to the responsibility of libraries to extend the distribution of information as far as possible to anyone who is interested in it. With leadership by the library community and support from international agencies and national governments, there will be increased access to knowledge across the global academic/research community. In recognition of the goal of making knowledge available and accessible to institutions and individuals worldwide, libraries will vigorously advocate for cooperation and resource sharing.

In this model, there is a single, virtual, universal library collection that is built and maintained by librarians (Baker, 2009). Costs to create and contribute catalog records to this collection, along with improved or enhanced telecommunication and transmission technology, are funded externally. A single search interface allows patrons to easily identify items of interest and initiate a direct request. The library that can fulfill the request will provide a digital copy, if at all possible, and send it off to the patron. The few physical items that must be shipped will be sent via expedited courier and returned to the patron’s nearest library, where the item will be shipped back to the lender. All charges, including copyright payments, shipping costs, and other fees are shared among all the libraries participating in ILL.

Open access/scholarly communication – of vital importance, especially for developing nations where access to research is problematic, open access becomes the standard for research publication.

Legal matters – in this model, intellectual property is protected and appropriate fees for copyright are accrued. A full understanding of different national laws and regulations regarding fair use of library materials and body of legal and ethical principles and guidelines to help in these activities are adopted by all participants in what is the world’s largest consortia.

Digital issues – the thorny issue of borrowing and lending licensed ebooks is resolved by negotiating with publishers for ILL rights and adopting a standardized platform. For example, DeepDyve (http://www.deepdyve.com/) allows library patrons to look at content for a limited time or small nominal fee. At a consortial and cooperative collection development level, Springer ebook licenses currently also allow for cooperative sharing of ebook titles. These models, or others like them, will become the accepted norm.

Big Deals – libraries will examine the effectiveness and true return on investment in Big Deals packages. Libraries may choose to license consortially and share those costs or return to single title or subject specialized collections.

Financial concerns – this model is all about diffusion of financial concerns. With strong government or external agency funding support, libraries will be able to build and maintain library collections and share resources cooperatively.

Strengths – in an increasingly international, borderless, interdependent world, and with strong external financial support, libraries can finally collectively share in the responsibility for preserving and making accessible information and knowledge without political, economic, social or technological barriers. The proposed scenario capitalizes on a foundation of existing cooperative agreements and established resource-sharing networks. Everyone, regardless of geographic location, can benefit from resources held by global partners. This model builds on, expands and improves what libraries already do.

Weaknesses – building and maintaining the virtual, universal library will be costly. Without extensive and sustained external funding and support, this scenario will be difficult to achieve. On a smaller scale, reluctance by libraries to give up policies, procedures, and systems they are already heavily invested in to try something new and untested will be a difficult obstacle to overcome. The model also assumes an equitable playing field, where the common values and interests needed to build this fully integrated system co-exists with a collective and unanimous desire to share resources.

Opportunities – this model provides the prospect of building a universal availability of publications system and collection that takes full advantage of existing skills, cooperative agreements, and working technologies. There is an opportunity for library personnel to develop a high level of technological expertise and for libraries to become a vital and visible part of the education and research process.

Threats – potential and real barriers to this story are the stark geopolitics of knowledge sharing along with the widening gap between rich and poor nations. Other threats include reluctance or resistance by crucial stakeholders to invest in the development of the systems and agreements needed for this model to succeed.

Scenario 3: a patchwork quilt

Key features of this scenario are:

By 2015, not much has changed. Libraries still collect, catalog, organize, disseminate and preserve information. The impact of the global economic crisis forced all libraries to cut back services, staff, and collections. While some core services may still be free at some institutions, the majority of libraries must now charge their own patrons and other libraries outside their consortia for interlibrary loan service. Access to information continues to be a major struggle, especially for developing nations and others that cannot afford the new pricing structures. Libraries strongly favor purchase of electronic material over print and the amount of material available electronically continues to grow. Libraries are not motivated to advocate for increased or expanded ILL services based on lack of funding and decreased staffing. There is also a disincentive to cooperate worldwide, resulting in a fragmented conglomeration of conflicting policies, procedures, and processes as each library resolves its place in the global resource sharing community.

In this stultified environment, the issues of open access/scholarly communication, copyright, digitization, and Big Deals remain on hold in the face of static or decreased budgets.

Strengths – in this scenario, global resource sharing is a necessary and valued service. Libraries maintain established consortia-based and reciprocal agreements. The existing systems that are in place work well and have been widely adopted. Libraries continue to collaborate with current stakeholders, including patrons, document suppliers, vendors and publishers, and build stronger ties with other libraries around the world. By maintaining and building on the status quo, disruptive change is avoided as more incremental changes occur. Libraries continue to address key issues of access and information delivery while preserving important and representative print and electronic collections.

Weaknesses – reactive, rather than proactive, responses to external developments place libraries in a diminished strategic position. In this environment, libraries face numerous challenges. As patrons become more self-sufficient and competition for fast and cheap document supply increases, identifying and retaining core customers will be difficult. For libraries, this patchwork model also means it will be difficult to know what exists, where it is located and how to get it. Lacking uniformity, staff lacking in language skills, understanding of international copyright law and experience with international ILL will be at a disadvantage. Based on budgetary and financial concerns, libraries will cling to the familiar and there will be reluctance to innovate or change. Lacking administrative or governmental support for initiatives, the gap between libraries willing and able to participate in global resource sharing widens.

Opportunities – because change will likely occur gradually, it may be possible to influence the direction of resources and services as well as to enhance the profile of libraries. In a model where no new projects or initiatives are attempted due to budgetary constraints, it may be possible for libraries to maintain or build excellence in service quality and customer satisfaction by increasing fill rate, improving turnaround time, customizing delivery options and finding acceptable productivity improvements to lower transactional costs.

Threats – pay-per-view will severely restrict access to digital information, especially for those who cannot afford to pay. Demand for resources may outstrip a library’s ability to provide what is needed. There is a general reluctance by governments, administrators and stakeholders to designate resources for external projects. Restrictive licenses, increased insularity and a pervading resistance to lend resources from individual collections could spell the end of collaborative resource sharing.

 Read widely professional journals, magazines, newsletters and blogs.

 Listen attentively to colleagues, vendors, patrons and administrators.

 Watch carefully your own statistics and workflow, looking for emerging patterns.

 Think critically and then …

 Library advocacy organizations such as ALA, IFLA and other national or regional associations.

 Form an advocacy group by finding other like-minded professionals, students, academics, administrators, library patrons, researchers and readers to discuss the issues.

 Write white papers on best practices, such as negotiating ILL rights in licensing agreements for econtent.

 Publish, present, write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, start a blog devoted to the thorny issues of global resource sharing.

 Organize and attend conferences, webinars and other continuing education events where these issues are discussed and push for solutions.

 Become a leader by advocating for the fullest possible terms and rights of access to information and the world’s storehouse of knowledge. For example, when purchasing or licensing electronic content, think about the issues of first sale, rights ownership, fair use and barriers to access. Take an assertive stance on fair use and the widest possible ILL rights.

 In other words, Get Informed, Get Connected and Get Active!

Baker, Shirley The Elephant and the Mouse. Washington University Libraries, 2009. http://library.wustl.edu/baker/transbord.html

O’Connor, Steve, Lai-chong, Au. Steering a Future Through Scenarios: Into the Academic Library of the Future. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 2009; 35(1):57–64.

Staley, David J., Malenfant, Kara. Futures Thinking for Academic Librarians: Higher Education in 2025. Information Services & Use. 2010; 30:57–90.