Library Juice 3:46 Supplement

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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 ) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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)? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 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. _________________________________________________________________________ L I B R A R Y J U I C E | http://libr.org/Juice/ | | Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription | fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and | desire to pay. 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