1. Key developments in
electronic delivery in LIS
2005-2008
Catherine Ebenezer
Royal College of Nursing Library
16/02/05

2. Electronic delivery is delivery of
content within a particular
information environment
Innovations in delivery of
content are dependent upon
technological developments
and their adoption within the
user community

3. Caveat
 Predicting technology developments an uncertain
business
 Gartner Inc. uses an adoption framework known as
the ‘hype cycle’ to characterise the over-enthusiasm
and subsequent disappointment that typically happen
with the introduction of new technologies
 The ‘hype cycle is represented graphically
 Each technology is assigned a ‘time to plateau’, i.e,
to reach a stage where they have been adopted by at
least 30% of the market and are still being deployed

4. Environment trends
Information consumer characteristics:
 Self-service/’disintermediation’
 Google the dominant search engine – publishers responding
by exposing database and journal content within Google
 Users prefer to order their own ILL articles
 Satisfaction
 Convenience an overriding factor
 Seamlessness
 Users want a single interface – contrast the diversity of
interfaces offered by libraries e.g. OPACs, BNI, NLH etc.
 Users want access to full text via direct linking from
bibliographic search tools
OCLC (2003) 2003 environmental scan
www.oclc.org/membership/escan/toc.htm

5. Environment trends
Lifelong learning/e-learning
 A challenge for libraries to provide access to
material to support non-traditional learning
initiatives
 Use of learning management systems –
libraries need to work with HE providers to
integrate content within LMSs
 LMSs impinge upon /a ‘rival’ to integrated
library systems

6. Content trends
 ‘Content is no longer format-dependent and users are
not dependent on traditional distribution channels for
access to content’
 ‘End-users see the most important role for their
libraries as making content available in their digital
workspace, regardless of what devices are in that
space’
 ‘The real integration to be aimed for is the more
effective integration of information resources into the
research and learning workflows of the user’
OCLC 2004 Information format trends: content, not containers
Dempsey, Lorcan (2004) Pick up a portal. Update October

7. Content trends
New models of research and
scholarly/professional communication:
 Open access
 E-journals – electronic-only access increasingly
common – libraries use link resolvers to direct
readers to the ‘appropriate copy’ of an article
 E-books – entered adoption phase
 Individual/institutional self-publishing
 Blogs, wikis
 Digital repositories, indexed using OAI-PMH
 E-prints, learning objects, datasets, theses

8. Technology trends
 Improvements in search technologies
 e.g. contextualised search - provides context to
assist end-users in determining relevance
e.g. WebBrain www.webbrain.com
 Automatic data categorisation
 Automates processes formerly carried out
by information professionals
 Many techniques in use

9. Technology trends
Federated search/metasearch/portals
 Execute a cross-file search across
bibliographic and full-text databases that
do not share a common index using an
XML version of Z39.50
 Aim to create a one-stop information
resource – a rival to Google!
 Portals aim to customise information
delivery – to minimise information overload
 Several ILS vendors offer portal products

10. Technology trends
Web services
 ‘Self-contained, self-describing modular applications
that can be published, located and invoked across
the Web’
 XML plays a key role in defining requirements,
behaviour and mediation formats
 Google makes a Web services API available to
developers – could be used by ILS developers
 Deploying Web services for their users is a challenge
to libraries – the potential is huge

11. Technology trends
RSS and blogging
 RSS a simple XML syntax for describing a
feed of recent additions to a web site.
 RSS content can derive from HTML
(‘scraping’), from a database, or from a CMS
 RSS content may include news items, blog
updates, library acquisitions, search results,
(e.g. HubMed),TOCs etc.
 Can be used by libraries to promote their
services

12. Technology trends
 Users subscribe to the feed using an
aggregator or newsreader – may be a piece
of desktop software, or a web-based service
 Information is brought together in one place -
a good way for the end-user to reduce
information overload – avoids visiting
numerous web sites or drowning in email
newsletters
 RSS-based search engines exist (e.g.
Technorati) that search RSS sites

13. NHS library portals
National Library for Health, NHS Scotland e-
Library, HOWIS
 NLH and other portals will be influential in
determining future pattern of service provision
by independent health libraries
 Planned NLH developments will use a Web
services architecture for integration of
services

14. NHS library portals
 New NLH services implemented or planned:
 NHS-wide metasearch
 NHS e-print server
 Clinical question answering service
 Personalised alerts service
 Primary care current awareness service using
RSS
 Integration of library content into EPR and Map of
Medicine
 National document delivery service – to be piloted

15. Remote library services
Libraries are already providing:
 Question answering services
 ‘Ask a librarian’ 24/7 online reference – can
use Internet ‘chat’ applications for this
 End-user initiated document supply, e.g. BL,
BMA Library
 Ability to manage loan transactions online:
renewals, reservations, fines
 PDA-accessible services: alerts, searching

16. References
 Dempsey, Lorcan (2004) Pick up a portal. Update October
 Ebenezer, C M (2005) The new National Library for Health.
ASSIGnation 22(2) 35-41
 Fichter, D (2004) Using RSS to create new services.
Online 28(4) 52ff.
 Johnston, P (2001) After the Big Bang: forces of change and e-
learning. Ariadne 27
www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/johnston/intro.html
 Luther, Judy (2003) Trumping Google? Metasearching’s
promise. Library Journal 10/1/03
 OCLC (2004) 2004 information format trends: content, not
containers www.oclc.org/reports/2004format.htm

17. References
 OCLC (2003) 2003 environmental scan
www.oclc.org/membership/escan/toc.htm
 Peacock, D et al. (2000 ) The role of LIS in supporting learning.
In Booth, A and Walton G (Eds.) Managing knowledge in health
services; pp. 99-112. London: Library Association.
 Royal College of Nursing (2004) Speaking up: nurses and NHS
IT developments: qualitative analysis results of an online
survey…www.rcn.org.uk/publications/
pdf/nurses_and_nhs_it_dev.pdf
 Rhyno, A (2003) From library systems to mainstream software:
how Web technologies are changing the role of the systems
librarian. Library Hi Tech 21(3) 289-296
 Wusteman, J (2004) RSS: the latest feed. Library Hi Tech 22(4)
404-413. www.ucd.ie/weusteman/lht/wusteman-rss.html