TO: William Andrews Chapman

Museum Director

FROM: Parvati Singh

Librarian

DATE: August 11, 2001

RE:Virtual Library

This is a great project and very exciting. I am eager to begin this project and build on my current skills and interest in digital libraries. A virtual library will provide a broader audience for museum materials and provide easier access for our patrons.

We need to begin the planning to move toward your vision. Let’s make this our primary agenda item during this week’s standing meeting. Initial issues I have identified to start the planning are as follows:

I. Issues to Consider:

  1. Staff
  2. Library staff will need to partner with IT personnel to develop the expanded services. Do we have the IT and Library staff to support the initiative?
  3. All staff must be technologically competent, and inhouse training will need to be expanded to promote training of additional online resources.
  4. Additional outside experts may be needed to consult at some point in the future.
  1. Collections
  2. Journals
  3. Gaps in online coverage

e.g. Evolutionary Anthropology starts electronically with volume 5.

  1. Not all of our journals are available digitally

e.g. Anthropology Abstracts

  1. Some of our journals have ceased publication and are not available online.

e.g. Occasional Papers in Anthropology

  • Monograph Collection

Many of the commonly used books are not available online.

  • Online commercially produced resources

i. Prices may be more than print subscription

ii. Access vs. ownership

If we discontinue our subscription in the future, we would no longer have access to any issues.

iii. Archiving

What will happen to the online journal if the publisher discontinues the journal?

  1. Publishers may hold the online subscription until after the print is published
  2. Licensing & Contracts Issues

*Archival material/Realia

These objects may have representations on the www, but the physical objects will still need to be housed in the Library.

  • Multimedia

Images, slides & sound files require a great deal of staff time and computing resources to be digitized and made available on the www.

  1. Equipment
  2. An extensive virtual library requires a considerable investment in computer resources, including software, hardware.
  3. All staff computers must be upgraded to meet the minimum requirements and must keep up with future technological changes.
  4. External users must have computers that can support access to our online resources.
  5. Online resources must be platform independent.
  1. Space
  • Can we make the existing library space a more functional space that could support our educational needs (classroom, lecture, etc)s?
  • Is the Library as “kitchen” or meeting room an important function?
  • Where will we serve the needs of external library users (teachers, students etc.)?
  • Where will we house the remaining library materials that are not available digitally?
  • Will there be sufficient space to house the additional equipment needed to run the virtual library?
  • How much space is requirered for the education classroom?
  1. Legal
  • Copyright issues for items placed on the www.
  • Licensing issues.
  1. Budget
  • Can the institution support the expenses to accomplish this project?

II. Planning

Now that some of the issues have been identified, following are some of the steps that we will need to address in order to decide on the direction of the Library and the www page.

1. Decide on Core Competencies for the Institution, Library,Virtual Library, Education and www page.

2. Identify museum and library stakeholders and determine their information needs and support for the virtual library project.

  • Internal patrons: curators, education staff, PR
  • External patrons: teachers, students, natural history enthusiasts

3. Partner with Communities

  • Are there other libraries with which we can share resources?
  • Are there other facilities we can use for a classroom?

4. Case Studies

  • CSU Monterey Bay Library

When the university was being developed, the plan was to develop a virtual library. CSU Monterey now includes 40,000 books and 445 journal subscriptions, and over 10,000 electronic full-text resources.

  • American Museum of Natural History

$2 million digitization project to digitize their information about the Congo.

  • MBARI

Institution partnered with similar institution to share resources.