Consortial Databases

ALA Midwinter 1997
ACRL STS Science and Technology Database Discussion Group

Sharing the Load:
.............the pros and cons of consortial database use.

Tom Klingler.....Kent State University

1.Database selection process and consortium governance.

1.1 Does a consortium-wide committee select the databases?
1.1.1 Is this committee elected or appointed?
1.1.2 Does it include public service librarians, directors, others?
1.1.3. Are guidelines in place to guarantee fair representation of all consortium members?
.....PRO:Good representation.
.....CON:Remember the "committee-->horse-->camel" thing.
.....CON:Are decisions made at a level too far above the user?
.....CON:Representation guidelines can shut out good people.
1.2 Does the consortium staff select the databases?
.....PRO:Efficient.
.....CON:Central staff can be too far from the trenches.
1.3 Can a combination of committee and staff work?
.....PRO:Best of both worlds.
.....CON:Time needed for committee work.

2.Database selection criteria

2.1 Are high-end databases acquired, those that few individual institutions can afford on their own?
.....PRO:Users get what they previously could not.
.....CON:Member libraries can't save or reallocate.
2.2 Are low-end databases acquired, those that most already provide,with the goal of wider provision and greater economies of scale?
.....PRO:Member libraries can cancel, save, reallocate.
.....PRO:Users get better, wider access to same databases.
.....CON:Users do not get access to new, rare, esoteric databases.
2.3 Are there selection/cancellation criteria in place for:
.....2.3.1 intellectual data quality
.....2.3.2 technical data quality
.....2.3.3 scope of coverage
.....2.3.4 performance record of dbase vendor
.....2.3.5 interface quality and performance
.....2.3.6 interface ubiquity
.....2.3.7 use
.....2.3.7 cost
.....PRO:Broad input into database review.
.....CON:Can the committee ever agree to cancel anything?

3.Database licensing/pricing.

3.1 Will licensing be consortium-wide?
.....CON:Loss of local control?
3.2 Are there differences in pricing/licensing for public vs. private institutions in the same consortium?
.....CON:Do the privates loose?
3.3 Is licensing by number of users, by ports, by institution, by some combination of these?
.....CON:How do you guarantee access at your campus?
3.4 Are there price breaks for members who maintain subscriptions to local products? Electronic or paper.
.....CON:How do you re-allocate dollars without cancellations?
3.5 Are there availability guarantees for members who cancel subscriptions to local products? Electronic or paper.
.....CON:Console your faculty who don't trust a vendor or a consortium staff to archive resources in perpetuity.
3.6 Can member institutions select single databases or suites of databases from the consortium?
.....CON:If so, how can the central staff negotiate really good contracts when they're not sure who'll subscribe?
3.7 How will you define different levels of patrons, e.g., those needing full access vs. limited. How will vendors deal with this situation? Will vendors force such a situation?
3.8 Do database suppliers, or electronic journal publishers, or third-part electronic journal suppliers, require multi-year commitments? ... of the consortium? ...of its member institutions?
.....CON:What about local flexibility? What about shrinking budgets?

4. Database funding.

4.1 Centralized.
.....CON: Who's in control?
4.2 Distributed.
.....CON: Who's in control?
4.3 Shared between member and consortium.
.....CON: Will your commitments to shared databases begin to tie your hands when it comes to funding other local resources?
4.4 Is the funding model the same for software, hardware, staff, and operational expenses?
4.5 Is database funding shared and all other funding centralized?
.....CON: Will central staff balloon at the expense of database provision?

5. To load or not to load.

5.1Are databases loaded at the consortium central site?
.....PRO: Same front end as other databases? ...as OPAC?
.....PRO: Cheaper database costs.
.....PRO: Link to consortium holdings--> document delivery possibilities.
.....CON: Staff, equipment, overhead demands for profiling, loading, indexing, maintenance. In other words, are you ready to turn your consortium staff into a database vendor?
5.2 Will loading the dbase at the central site result in the delivery of the same product people thought they were getting?
5.3 Gateway to existing site?
.....PRO: Less staff, equipment demands.
.....PRO: Proven track record of vendor, front-end, and data.
.....CON: Different front ends.
.....CON: No link to holdings.
.....CON: User challenges: multiple front-ends with varying designs, response-times, and behaviors with local clients
.....PRO/CON: Multiple points of failure.

6. The vendors:

Engine provider/database supplier/database vendor/ ILS (integrated library system) provider.

6.1 Will you contract with a variety of types of vendors? Can your service goals allow you not to?
6.2 How many contracts can you manage?
6.3 How much finger-pointing can you tolerate?
6.4 How will a variety of vendors affect the reliability of access that you're expected to provide?
6.5 Will you develop criteria to dump vendor or product? Performance standards? Evaluation process? Utilization review?
6.6 Will your search engine specifications be defined by committee, staff, or a vendor ?

7. Database profiling process.

7.1 Will databases be profiled by the consortium staff?
7.2 ...by committee?
7.3 ...by your ILS vendor?
7.4 ...by the data supplier?
7.5 ...by the database vendor?
7.6 Specify a timeline for the profile / load / start-up process.
7.7 Require sample records from the data supplier.
7.8 Require paper profile from the loading vendor.
7.9 Specify review of paper profile and review of test load.
7.10 How will you document and standardize profile maintenance?
7.11 How will you organize and implement profile enhancements?
7.12 Can you get the database pre-indexed by the vendor?

8. Custom data processing.

8.1 If you license the database directly and have your ILS vendor mount it, or your consortia staff mount it, will extra work be needed to avoid the "But-this-version-of-the-database-doesn't-look-or-work-like-the-one- I'm-used-to," syndrome?
8.2 Who will do this post-processing? ...data provider? ...ILS provider, ...consortium staff?

9. Front-end.

9.1 How many front-ends will you implement across your entire database collection?
9.2 The same front-end as OPAC?

10. Hardware.

10.1 How will it be chosen? ...funded? ...located ?? Centrally? ...distributed? ...at vendor?
10.2 Will unique hardware be centrally specified and funded?
10.3 Will a product/service requiring identical hardware be centrally-funded?
10.4 Will the consortia or vendor set hardware standards?

11. Access.

11.1 Will database access be restricted by IP checking? ...by some proxy service that solves the "But-I-connect-from- home-via-my-ISP!" problem?
11.2 Will authentication happen at the central site, or will it be distributed among the consortium member sites?
11.3 Will there be central or distributed patron databases?

12. Periodicals holdings data.

12.1 Will the holdings data in your ILS system be available to users of the shared journal databases? Whether or not those databases run on your ILS system or another system?
12.2If so, will holdings data be stored centrally or locally?
12.3 Will holdings data facilitate intra-consortium lending?
12.4 Will holdings data facilitate extra-consortium lending?
12.5 Will holdings data facilitate patron-initiated article requesting intra- or extra-consortium, or from document suppliers, or from e-journal vendors?
12.6 Will your ILS vendor's proprietary protocol prevent you from giving your users a link between your holdings data and a research database running on another vendor's system?
12.7 Will your ILS vendor share their API with your other vendors, and/or use Z39.50 to facilitate sharing holdings data?
12.8 Will your vendors support a standard article identifier (SISAC/SICI) to facilitate requesting and lending?

13. Service/protocol/client support.

13.1 Will your vendors support ...WWW? ...Lynx? ...which browsers?
13.2 ...VT100 ?
13.3 ...Windows GUI? ...Macintosh?
13.4 ...Z39.50?

14. Documentation, training and promotion.

14.1 Will it be provided by the consortia staff?
14.2 ...by committee?
14.3 Will you outsource it?
14.4 Can you make these elements part of your database vendor's contract?
14.5 Will you provide training at the central site? ...at regional sites? ...on the WWW?

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Sharing the Load: .............the pros and cons of consortial database use.