2019 Charleston Library Conference

Decidedly Digital: Recentering Digital Collections Efforts for Sustainable, Equitable Access (Jenifer Bartle)---
Ten years ago, the prevailing wisdom in the Digital Collections side of librarianship went like this: We will know we have arrived -- and will be welcomed into the fold by our noble library colleagues! -- when that descriptor “digital” falls away and our work will simply be known as... Collections!

This has not happened (nor, probably, should it). Things are still described as “digital”, perhaps now more than ever, even as “digital” increasingly becomes the prevailing mode of access to the collections we offer our many publics, whether across campus or across the globe. The truth is that even as it gets easier to make things digital, it’s as hard as ever to make digital things useful, and especially to make them useful over time. Production and dissemination of decidedly digital data is one of the critical roles that the library has undertaken in recent years.

We can do better. Neglecting the importance of the unique requirements of digital collections work has resulted in a number of problems: under-resourced, unsustainable efforts; diffusion of expertise; incomplete adoption of accepted library standards; elision of collection development best practices -- in short, trying to manage digital collections programs as if they don’t require every bit as much expense and expertise as other collections.

The dichotomy at issue here is not digital vs. print. Rather, it is that of producer vs. consumer. Libraries have been knowledge producers for quite some time now, but always at the margins, with a degree of precarity that would not be acceptable to accord traditional collections efforts.

It’s time to bring our Digital Collections programs into the fold, descriptor intact, and give them the central place they deserve alongside other collections. It’s time to imagine other ways of expending our efforts to provide sustainable, equitable, digital access to our unique materials.

Acquiring eBooks - Does (should) workflow play a role? (Alexis Linoski)---
Is it better to own or subscribe to eresources? Is cost the only factor? Should workflow, staffing, and staff expertise play a part in whether eresources are purchased or a subscription model is used? This snapshot session will present some of the workflows involved with purchase acquisition models, such as DDA, EBS, and Firm order, and compare to the workflow for subscription based acquisition. It will also present a brief cost analysis from the institution which shows that sometimes, when time and labor are factored into the equation, perhaps subscription is actually more cost effective than ownership.

E textbook purchases. Are we making a difference? (Kate Hill)---
For three years UNC Greensboro University Libraries has teamed up with the bookstore to identify ebooks that were on the textbook adoption list to purchase for the collection. The presentation will include what types of ebooks were purchased, identify ebooks and investigate their usage, and also look at cost savings for students. The presentation will also include some other types of resources faculty have asked the library to fund to help lower the cost of textbooks for their students.

10 Things You Need To Know About A Content Transfer of eBooks...You Won't BELIEVE #9! (Tressa Santillo)---
In 2018, the Massachusetts Library System sought to migrate 20,000+ copies of eBooks and audiobooks from Baker & Taylor's Axis360 platform to OverDrive. We were ultimately successful at transferring 98% of that content but we encountered challenges throughout the process including data standardization with the vendors, communication issues with individual publishers, and timing.

The listicle format of the format is intended to engage audience members with short snippets of information and tips to prepare them for a future content migration of their own.

This presentation briefly outlines the steps of the process and recounts lessons learned. These lessons learned can be applied to any library that is considering a content migration between different vendors and the types of issues that libraries can expect to encounter throughout the process.