Library Juice 3:46 Supplement - December 6, 2000

COLLIB-L discussion on Questia


Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 11:23:55 -0500
From: Richard Miller <millerr[at]LOKI.STOCKTON.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Our student newspaper came out yesterday with an article touting a new web
service, Questia.com. This service will, according to the student writer, make
"the days of going to the library almost over".

I have to admit to being completely in the dark about this .com venture. I
visited its website (www.questia.com) and viewed an 8-minute presentation about
the service. There are some FAQs that provide additional information. From what
I read, it seems clear that our student writer completely misunderstood what
Questia wants to be, and that this new service-for-fee resource will not
substitute for a good brick-and-mortar library.

But I am interested in what seem to be a few unique aspects of the Questia
service, such as automatic formatting of footnotes, and reverse citation linking.

Does anyone have any inside information or thoughts on Questia?

Dr. Richard E. Miller
Assistant Library Director for Public Services
Richard Stockton College
Pomona, New Jersey

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 11:59:43 -0500
From: Blake Carver <bcarver[at]LISNEWS.COM>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

We've run a few stories on questia, though I have no "inside" information
maybe these links will help clear up a few questions. It looks interesting,
though I can't say I agree with the business model.

http://chronicle.com/free/2000/11/2000111401t.htm

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38671,00.html

http://lisnews.com/search.php3?query=questia&topic=§ion=&author=

-Blake Carver
LISNews.com
Library and Information Science News

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:22:02 -0500
From: Julia Dickinson <jdickins[at]HAMILTON.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

At 11:23 AM 11/21/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Our student newspaper came out yesterday with an article touting a new web
>service, Questia.com. This service will, according to the student writer,
>make "the days of going to the library almost over".
>  <snip>
>Does anyone have any inside information or thoughts on Questia?
>
>Dr. Richard E. Miller
>Assistant Library Director for Public Services
>Richard Stockton College
>Pomona, New Jersey

I have an encounter with a student I would like to share regarding the
student newspaper comment above.

A male student approached the Reference Desk one evening.  He told me that
he was trying to get basic information about the Taste of Chicago food
festival.  He explained that he had found what he wanted "on the Internet"
but that the site wanted him to pay for the articles.  One more question
revealed that he had logged on to the Chicago Tribune website.  I showed
him how to access our subscription to Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe and
explained that although the Chicago Tribune was not part of the database
anymore, there were other Chicago-based newspapers that might have the
information he was seeking.  I took the opportunity to
proselytize while the database executed the search statement.  I reiterated
his initial need and the steps that he took to discover the information on
his own.  He shook his head in the affirmative.  I stated, "So the reason
you came to the library was because you did not want to pay for what the
library might be able to get for you for free?"  He nooded.  I said, "Don't
forget that."  In ten minutes flat, he stopped back by the Reference Desk
with print-outs in hand to say thank you.  He'll be back....

Questia.com is new and has a lot of money behind it for marketing it's
services to the end-user.  But the lure of convenience begins to wane when
the realization comes that information does not have to be a
commodity.  Information can be "free" to end-users; they just have to be
made aware of the place to look.

Julia Dickinson
Reference Librarian
Burke Library, Hamilton College
Clinton, NY 13323

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:30:26 -0500
From: "Albanese, Andrew (Cahners-NYC)" <AAlbanese[at]CAHNERS.COM>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

We've run a lot of stories on Questia in the LJ Academic Newswire, and I
have done a number of interviews with everyone from their marketing director
to their CEO.  I have a very good idea what they are up to, and how the
service will work.

If you'd like to talk about it, by all means you can call me here at the
Newswire, 212-463-6852.  If you email me directly, I'd also be happy to
share some of the articles we've done, if you're interested.

best,
Andrew Albanese
Contributing Editor
LJ Academic Newswire
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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 13:03:06 -0500
From: "Bell, Steven" <BellS[at]PHILAU.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Richard:

I find this - the story in your campus paper - really interesting. In my five
year plan's environmental scan I pointed out that libraries will increasingly
face a new form of competition from for-profit information providers who will
attempt to usurp the library mission by marketing their wares directly to
students and faculty. We see this happening with Questia, Ebrary and Xanedu.
Jones International is advertising an instant digital library (though their
model is different than the others). My provost's response to this is that I
was probably unnecessarily concerned about this, and maybe she is right.
There may be a parallel to when the web first became available and many
librarians immediately saw this as a threat rather than an opportunity
(e.g., a place where folks will go to get their information rather than the
library). To a large extent that is happening. But we are surviving and if
anything, the web has made all of our operations stronger. That's not to make
light of all the issues related to properly educating students about research,
but we are certainly using the web to our advantage - and there are now
reports of students coming back to the library to get help with research as
a result of the frustration of trying to find good information on the web.

As I look at these new services I do feel somewhat threatened - and concerned
that students may end up paying for something they can get for free from us.
In reality, "the days of going to the library are over" is true for many
students who can remotely use our electronic resources and "going to the
library" was never an option for many of our distance students. Now your
students may just pay for the privilege (did the article say anything about
Questia charging $360 a year to subscribe). I think we'll all need to keep a
close watch on the for-profit  direct-to-the-student information services
before we know what to really make of it. I would hope that we will identify
where the opportunities exist - and that we'll be able to work with these
vendors to offer our students something to improve the learning process. As
it stands now, the vendors appear not to want to offer institutional
subscriptions. Many librarians has expressed the opinion that students will
not be willing to pay for these services. If that is the case, the business
model may change in our favor.

If the student who wrote the article is impressed with the service though
(and again, did he or she know there is a cost to it or did they even try -
or did he or she just read the Questia press release), that might speak
volumes about how students will react.

Steven J. Bell, Director of the Library
Paul J. Gutman Library
Philadelphia University
School House Lane & Henry Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19144
(v)215-951-2847 (f)215-951-2574
bells[at]philau.edu
Library Home Page: www.philau.edu/library
Personal Home Page: staff.philau.edu//bells

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r
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 14:01:07 -0500
From: "Damon D. Hickey" <dhickey[at]acs.wooster.edu>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

I don't want to be a doom-and-gloom type, but I believe that we
college librarians need to look at something like Questia from a
college administrator's perspective before we dismiss its potential
impact on our world. Yes, Questia charges a fee to each student who
wants to use it. Questia's aim is to offer enough journals and books
in digital form to make it worth a student's while to pay the
fee--after all, they'll be getting one-stop shopping without leaving
their rooms or having to interact with a human. Publishers at this
point are jumping on a lot of digital bandwagons (making their
products available through lots of vendors) in order to see which
ones break down and which ones end up leading the parade. Questia has
a lot of financial backing, and may well be one of the "keepers." Now
suppose college president X decides, "Hey, we can buy Questia for
each of our students, get access to a library with more books and
journals than we have here on our campus, and get online reference
service for our students as well, all for less than it costs us now
to pay all those library people and buy all those expensive books and
journals." Can we prove to that president that the value we add is
really worth the difference in cost?

I suspect that only those libraries that are part of big consortia
such as OhioLINK or that are individually much bigger and better than
what Questia is likely to be are going to be able to argue
effectively that they can offer lots more "bang for the buck" than
such virtual libraries.

Damon Hickey, The College of Wooster

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 14:19:26 -0600
From: Larry Hardesty <lhardesty[at]AUSTINC.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Damon,  I share your concerns.  I think it will be very tempting for
particularly the administrators of the less well-endowed institutions to
view Questia just as you suggested.  In fact, in a telephone conversation
with Troy Williams, founder of Questia, last spring he asked about an
institution requiring students to purchase subscriptions to Questia just as
some institutions require students to have laptops.

My counter argument (but I don't think it is all that effective to the
administrator facing lots of financial pressures) is that the academic
library of a particular institution is tailored to the needs of the faculty
and students.  We have distinct collections based largely on the interests
of the faculty.  Questia may or may not match those interests.   I would
take a 200,000 volume library (supplemented by electronic resources)
created by the faculty--and librarians--over time versus a 200,000
electronic text version created by Questia over the past few years.  I
think the former will come much closer in meeting the needs of a particular
academic community than will Questia.

Larry Hardesty

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 15:37:47 -0500
From: "Bell, Steven" <BellS[at]PHILAU.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Larry:

You make a good point, one that I didn't express well in my own submission
on this topic. What drives student demand for information resources are the
assignments they are required to complete. Given the unique nature of each
of our institutions, faculty are likely to create assignments that will
require the use of materials collected by the library. Granted, that does
not always work well in practice, as demonstrated by students who bypass the
library's collections for whatever they can find on the web more
conveniently. While we are not in control of what Questia offers, we can
exert our influence over what faculty require students to do through our
collaborative efforts in designing research assignments. If we can encourage
faculty to design research assignments that are geared to the collections we
offer (case in point, my library's extensive collection of textiles and
materials sciences information), it is less likely students will find what
they need in Questia's generic collections. I know some of you are saying we
are not currently positioned to exert influence over assignments, but I
think that may change as more of our institutions adopt information literacy
programs and we begin to work more closely with faculty in developing and
creating research assignments (we are already doing some of that on my
campus, as I'm sure some of you are doing on yours).

A service like Xanedu is potentially more dangerous than Questia because
their model is designed to be sold to both the faculty member and the
student - so that the faculty member can offer the service directly to the
students in their class or at a minimum have a direct link on their course
page to Xanedu for the students. If the faculty members buy into the
service, then they are much more likely to promote it to their students -
leaving the library out of the loop. How many of us are making it convenient
and easy for faculty and students to get remote access to our resources. If
you require proxies, VPN, or other authentication technologies, it is just
one more barrier students would probably rather not bother with - if they
can get it elsewhere more easily even if there is a cost.

Steven J. Bell, Director of the Library
Paul J. Gutman Library
Philadelphia University
School House Lane & Henry Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19144
(v)215-951-2847 (f)215-951-2574
bells[at]philau.edu
Library Home Page: www.philau.edu/library
Personal Home Page: staff.philau.edu//bells

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 15:41:57 -0500
From: paul wiener <pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Isn't the point that Questia is marketing to the end-user, not to the Library?
Isn't the end-user is more likely to agree to spend $25./month for
information from home than to spend $38,000/a month from the Library that
right now is being subsidized by others than himself?

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 15:04:15 -0600
From: Monika Antonelli <MANTONEL[at]LIBRARY.UNT.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Left to their own devices I do not think students would be willing to
spend $25 a month for information.  (Tongue placed firmly in cheek.)
Especially when they can get everything they need for free on the
Internet.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard a student say, "I need an
article for class, I don't care what it is.  Just give me something."
Students want it fast and free.  For the most part, quality is not an
issue for them.

Now if the faculty require them to subscribe to these services that
might change the dynamics of the situation.

Monika

Monika Antonelli
General Reference Librarian
University of North Texas
Libraries
P.O. Box 305190
Denton, TX 76203-5190
Voice: 940.565.3981
Fax: 940.565.2599
E-mail: mantonel[at]library.unt.edu

*******************************************************************
In a word, a librarian should have the learning of a Bacon,
the manner of a Chesterfield, the patience of Job, the divining power
of a
wizard, and the temper of an angel. (The
Kalends, October 1898 )

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 16:19:54 -0500
From: paul wiener <pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

I agree. But my point was that, it's free (so far) only to the student.
If someone decides not to fund us, it ain't free anymore! It's not even
there. The days of the free lunch may be disappearing. Many thinkers
consider the market to be a better model for education than the "non-profit"
learning sector.

At 03:04 PM 11/21/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Left to their own devices I do not think students would be willing to
>spend $25 a month for information.  (Tongue placed firmly in cheek.)
>Especially when they can get everything they need for free on the
>Internet.

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 16:37:37 -0500
From: Ed Hynes <ehynes[at]STONEHILL.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

There's a saying something like:  If your only tool is a hammer, all of your
problems look like nails. If the students are paying a monthly charge for the
service I suspect it will be their default information source (specialized
programs and collections aside).

And I assume that the folks running Questia would take feedback from their
customers and try to improve the database over time. It might never match the
fit of a college library, but if it gets close enough, who will notice?

Monika Antonelli wrote:

> Left to their own devices I do not think students would be willing to
> spend $25 a month for information.  (Tongue placed firmly in cheek.)
> Especially when they can get everything they need for free on the
> Internet.

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 15:38:36 -0600
From: Monika Antonelli <MANTONEL[at]LIBRARY.UNT.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

An excellent reason for librarians to market aggressively to their
primary and secondary clientele.

And a comment about these "thinkers" that consider the market to be a
better place for education.  Follow the money.  Many of the people who
are making these claims have a vested interest in the outcome.

Yes.  I agree we need to be careful and watch the "competition".  But
we also need to champion and promote ourselves, librarians and
libraries,  in the market place.  If we communicate effectively with our
users, our users will be able to evaluate which services offer the
better value.  I will put my money on librarians and libraries every
time.

Monika

Monika Antonelli
General Reference Librarian
University of North Texas
Libraries
P.O. Box 305190
Denton, TX 76203-5190
Voice: 940.565.3981
Fax: 940.565.2599
E-mail: mantonel[at]library.unt.edu

*******************************************************************
In a word, a librarian should have the learning of a Bacon,
the manner of a Chesterfield, the patience of Job, the divining power
of a wizard, and the temper of an angel. (The
Kalends, October 1898 )

>>> pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU 11/21/00 03:19PM >>>
>I agree. But my point was that, it's free (so far) only to the student.If
>someone decides not to fund us, it ain't free anymore! It's not even
>there. The days of the free lunch may be disappearing. Many thinkers
>consider the market to be a better model for education than the
>"non-profit" learning sector.

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 16:14:16 -0600
From: Steve Marquardt <Steve_Marquardt[at]SDSTATE.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Those students who need it fast, free, and the night before the paper is
due -- will they think (and act) far enough ahead to pay $25 monthly for the
info?  Another scenario that might develop -- "Hey, prof, can't you make the
paper due in May like my other classes?  That way I'd only need to pay for
one month of Questia access, instead of for two months."

Steve Marquardt
Dean of Libraries
Briggs Library
Box 2115
South Dakota State University
Brookings, SD  57007-1098
Voice: 605-688-5106
FAX: 605-688-6133
E-mail: STEVE_MARQUARDT[at]sdstate.edu

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 21:25:29 -0600
From: Ethelle Bean <beane[at]PLUTO.DSU.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

At $25 per month per student, wouldn't Questia cost an institution
with a 2000 student FTE about $600,000 a year (12 month)? And
Questia alone can't provide the range of library services mine does
or am I missing something?  And a 200,000 book collection isn't
really much considering FirstSearch provides Worldcat holdings
information for over 35 million titles (and FS is but one arrow in my
quiver of resources - print and electronic).  Seems to me, we would
all be able to make a strong case for local selection and control vs
a single vendor with that kind of a campus pricetag. For $600,000 I
could (and do) put together an excellent array of collection,
services, and staff. An academic library is not just collections and
reference after all.

For me, the critical thing Questia is missing is the teaching
mission of the academic library.  It is all very well to say that the
software is user friendly to the point that a 5 year old can operate
it. And maybe toss in an self paced tutorial.  But what about the
information literacy role of the library in the student's undergraduate
(and even more particularly graduate) education?  Instruction in
evaluating information sources, search techniques, online and print,
etc. in collaboration with the classroom faculty so that a graduating
student has the information skills necessary in whatever discipline
is key to what today's academic libraries are about.    I would
doubt that Questia could even take the field to compete with my
librarians in this arena. -- Ethelle Bean

_________________________________________________________
Ethelle S. Bean, Director, Karl E. Mundt Library,
Dakota State University, Madison SD, 57042-1799.
Phone: 605-256-5203 FAX: 605-256-5208
email: ethelle.bean[at]dsu.edu
Website: www.departments.dsu.edu/library/
Note:  All opinions expressed are my own...etc.

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Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 10:23:02 -0500
From: paul wiener <pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

No, it would cost 2000 students $600,000 a year.

I cannot vouch for the purpose of teaching or acquiring information literacy
when basic literacy is so obviously in short supply.

At 09:25 PM 11/21/00 -0600, you wrote:
>At $25 per month per student, wouldn't Questia cost an institution
>with a 2000 student FTE about $600,000 a year (12 month)?

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Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 10:42:40 -0500
From: paul wiener <pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

At 03:37 PM 11/21/00 -0500, you wrote:

Have you ever taught a non-library course? Can you imagine a librarian
asking you to tailor your assignments to what is in the library? What
exactly would motivate professors to do this - good will?  Are you
suggesting that the "information marketplace" will drive out expertise
itself, and not vice versa? There are indications this is happening.
What's the good part?

>If we can encourage
>faculty to design research assignments that are geared to the collections
>we offer (case in point, my library's extensive collection of textiles and
>materials sciences information), it is less likely students will find what
>they need in Questia's generic collections.

A service like Xanedu is potentially more dangerous than Questia because

Here again, the key word - the misreading - is "dangerous." There is nothing
dangerous about competition, except to the opinions, stasis and pride of those
who may be forced to defend, change or improve library services in order to
meet it.

Paul B. Wiener
Special Services Librarian
Melville Library
SUNY at Stony Brook
631/632-7253
FAX: 631/632-7116
pwiener[at]ms.cc.sunysb.edu

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Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:20:17 -0500
From: "Damon D. Hickey" <dhickey[at]acs.wooster.edu>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

At Wooster we've had some limited success getting faculty to tailor
assignments to library resources, especially in courses such as advanced
history seminars, in which students work with original sources in our
Special Collections. But by and large, I would agree with Paul. The mission
of our libraries is to support the curriculum, not vice versa. But as a
matter of fact, very few colleges or universities expect undergraduates to
do serious library research (by "serious" I mean something more than an
occasional 10-page "research paper"), and I suspect that Questia or
something like it will be able to support that level of research
eventually. In fact, many students are squeaking by now with papers based
entirely upon non-library Web sources.

Has anyone else seen the University of Phoenix ads on cable TV? This is a
university that offers its entire program online, with access to Web-based
library resources that (supposedly) support the program. It's not what I
would call "higher education." It may not even be what I'd call
"education." And it's certainly not what the parents of most of our
students want for their kids. But we're all betting our institutional
survival on the premise that at least as many parents are going to continue
to be willing to pay our prices to buy our kind of education for their
children, AND that they're going to be willing to pay even more to buy our
kind of education plus the rising cost of new technology to enhance (but
NOT to replace) our kind of education.

My concern about Questia and similar ventures is that those colleges that
are struggling the hardest to keep costs down in order to stay in business
may come to see them as a way to use technology to replace (rather than to
enhance) one very expensive part of their operation: the library. I hope
I'm wrong, but in the meantime, I'm doing everything I can think of to
reduce our costs, enhance our resources (especially through consortial
relationships), promote the use of our resources and services, and
encourage our faculty to work with us to teach effective research skills to
our students, so that it will be obvious to everyone that what we're
providing is more cost-effective than anything that a Questia could hope to
provide.

Damon Hickey, The College of Wooster
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Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 12:48:40 -0500
From: paul wiener <pwiener[at]MS.CC.SUNYSB.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

Yes, I recently saw a TV program on the Univ. of Phoenix online courses -
in a cable tv lecture I watched. The show  included a skeptical response
from a well-placed librarian. I felt somewhat threatened by what I saw,
because the people on the show seemed to truly believe this new version of
TV monitoring was equivalent to education. The past 60 years of learning
from a screen has done almost NOTHING to change or improve education,
especially where it's needed most. No one seems to notice that, whatever
else it may be, this new kind of distance learning is little different from
kids playing video games: you are alone in a quiet room in a chair in front
of a screen, interacting with images. That's education? I felt angry and
puzzled, since I see no evidence of those trends on this campus, despite
the smug lip service academics here and everywhere pay to technology,
information and the web. In other words, nobody really seems to know what
to expect, but they're for it, as long as they can keep their jobs....

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

From: Blake Carver [mailto:bcarver[at]LISNEWS.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 2:31 PM
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

> collection development.  Many faculty members are not familiar with the
> online and print resources we have available.  Unusually they are

surprised
> by how much we do have.

And that is the problem! I think academic libraries need to do more
marketing so people are not surprised by what is there, they just know it is
there, and they need what is there, and they love what is there, so they
support what is there, and use what is there... so there!

One of the first things I did in the last library I worked in was aggressive
marketing, so everyone knew who I was, what I did, and what we had. Since I
was the only librarian, and it was a small school, this wasn't difficult.

---------------------
Blake Carver
LISNews.com
http://www.lisnews.com
Librarian and Information Science News

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Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:50:45 -0600
From: "Parsons, Jim" <JParsons[at]CSBSJU.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

I think with Blake's response we are finally moving the argument to where it
should be - on the issue of services, and marketing them appropriately.  The
primary reason that students will be tempted to subscribe to Questia is not the
quality of the resources; they will be attracted to the availability (in their
dorm room) and the delivery mode and time frame  (via the Web, nearly
instantaneous).

While I can agree that most of us provide superior resources, I don't think we
gain anything by claiming we have x number volumes in our collection and have
access to the 35 million titles via WorldCat on FirstSearch.  What access?  By
and large, we require students to come to a building to identify and retrieve
books that we own.  For some institutions, this may require a bus ride, or at
least a nice walk across campus.  For those items we don't own, we promise that
we'll have them in a week or more (depending on the quality of our ILL/document
delivery system).  If you were a busy student, which would you choose?

Questia - and other similar projects - are offering us a wonderful opportunity
to re-examine student needs.  We have nothing to fear if we're truly adding
value cost-effectively.  We only need worry if this is not the case - which I
sense is a concern given the comments on this issue so far.  Do we provide the
level of service needed regardless if we have higher quality collections?  Or,
to put it another way, what good is a wonderful resource if you can't use when
you need it?

Jim Parsons

--------
Jim Parsons
Associate Director for Public Services
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University
Clemens Library
St. Joseph, MN  56374
mailto:jparsons[at]csbsju.edu
voice: 320.363.5907
fax:  320.363.5197

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Re: Questia.com:how can we respond.
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 14:51:37 -0400
From: "Richard M. Dougherty" <rmdoughe[at]SI.UMICH.EDU>
To: COLLIB-L[at]acs.wooster.edu

I initially drafted my posting after I read Monica's contribution, but Jim
Parson's response also reflects my feelings.

I have followed the thread of comments about Questia.com with great
interest.  I've been watching the developments at Questia for several
months.  Questia may succeed or fail, but inevitably there is going to be
some sort of service like the one Questia proposes.  Obviously, they have
deep $$ pockets because they seem to be successfully working out
arrangements with publishers.  This is something we haven't been able to
do.

A couple of weeks ago I was making a presentation to a group of public and
academic librarians.  I mentioned Questia.com as a potential competitor.  I
can't recall encountering such obvious hostility from an audience.  Talk
about killing the messenger.  Those of you interested in change management
might recognize the reaction.  Some in the audience were experiencing
grief, others denial, and quite a few had reached the anger stage.  The
subject of the presentation was how to avoid absolesence in reference.
Denying or getting angry because we now face competitors won't be helpful
in the days ahead.

I suspect that this was why Monika Antonelli's comments resonated so much
with me.  I too believe we are going to have to do a much better job in
aligning our services with the needs of users.  In order to do this we
ought to be engaging in market research followed by agressive marketing.
Because the terms "marketing" and "market research" tend to turn off
academics, I have been using terms such as "user needs assessment" as a
synonym that is more acceptable.  The tools of market research can indeed
be adapted to our needs.

There is already a growing disconnect between what many of our users want
and need (or what they think they need or want) and what we are offering.
How did I come to this conclusion?  One of the exercises Pat Cavill and I
use in our workshops is to compare what we offer and what our users
(customers) want and desire.  The contrast in the list is very, very
striking.

One of the real challenges many of our academic libraries face is that they
are small and can't afford to engage in a market research study or for that
matter mount and maintain a marketing campaign.  This might be an
opportunity to think of acting collaboratively.  The important point is to
get beyond the talking stage.

I believe we have an important case to make, but it is a case we will have
to make agressively.

Richard M. Dougherty,
President
Dougherty and Associates
734-665-4547
e-mail: rmdoughe[at]umich.edu
_________________________________________________________________________

I asked the above contributors for their permission to repost their
messages. Ethelle Bean replied with the following message:

Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 21:54:25 -0600
From: beane[at]pluto.dsu.edu
To: Rory Litwin <rlitwin[at]earthlink.net>

Sure, quote me. This one too, if you want.  I only hope the point I
was making was clear regarding administration seeing Questia as
a replacement for the campus library. -- I wondered since Paul
Weiner didn't seem to get it.  Since the little flurry of email, I went
an took the tour of questia.com and even signed up for their free
trial.

Interesting that they don't want anything to do with libraries as
institutional members.  The formating features seem interesting.
Database size is pretty small.  Also seems to me that, given the
small selection, faculty might have an easy time of tracking down
plagiarism.  We already offer netlibrary, ITKnowledge, and a slew of
other full text periodical resources online so I am not sure what our
students would gain, except for the automatic citation formats.   I
still don't think they provide the Info Lit part that we do.  I would be
very nervous if I were in a somewhat traditional, print focused library
and hadn't long ago settled the ownership vs. access question with
focused ownership and as much access as the budget would buy
coupled with aggressive BI outreach. A bit windy but you see my
meaning?  Long way to give permission. Sorry. But it is an
interesting topic. -- Ethelle Bean

_________________________________________________________
Ethelle S. Bean, Director, Karl E. Mundt Library,
Dakota State University, Madison SD, 57042-1799.
Phone: 605-256-5203 FAX: 605-256-5208
email: ethelle.bean[at]dsu.edu
Website: www.departments.dsu.edu/library/
Note:  All opinions expressed are my own...etc.
_________________________________________________________________________


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