CSUMB (was Re: Electronic Libraries)

[John Ober]

Hi all -
I thought a brief report from "on-scene" might be useful. I'm
currently the Development Librarian for Electronic Resources at Cal
State, Monterey Bay. A campus that is in its sixth semester! I've been
unsubscribed from the list following a recent vacation, but colleagues
have shared the discussion on Electronic Libraries and Cal State Monterey
Bay.

Many thanks to John Creech who nicely summarized the history and status of
our particular version of an electronic library. (We certainly still miss
John as a friend and colleague.) As he and others have pointed out we do
explicitly state that we prefer electronic access to on-site print
collections "whenever possible and economically feasible." More
specifically we are trying to use the Web as a "one-stop" gateway to
elctronic sources (which is one reason we have almost entirely avoided a
CD-ROM collection; other reasons include the huge support costs involved
with CD networks, etc, with which I'm familiar due to a stint at UC
Berkeley in the Systems Office). 

As many of you have surmised, the "feasibility" of an electronic
collection depends upon what academic programs one is supporting, as well
as the type of material considered. We think it is very close to feasible
(pedagocially, economically, and service-wise) to support the needs for
journal and periodical literature of an undergraduate program
electronically. Thus we subscribe to services (mostly the usual ones) that
give us access to roughly 3900 titles in full text, and promise rapid Doc.
Delivery for other titles (using, by the way, commercial services as much
as possible rather than our sister libraries because we're sensitive to
legitimate concerns that we will become a net-borrower of materials). We 
have some advatages in subscribing to these electronic services that
include the Cal State consortial licensing and the pro-rated costs that
depend on campus size (we're currently about 1800 students; the goal is
to reach about 10,000 on-campus and 15,000 off-campus students). We
very carefully select titles to carry in print, with frequent adjustment
as academic programs come on-board  and as titles in high-demand but
unavailable electronically are identified. We think we can keep these
subscriptions to around 300 for the next several years.

The feasibility of a core monograph collection based electronically is
obviously further down the road. We haven't even tried to guess how far
down the road, but instead have created a collection of 30,000 print
volumes and a budget which will continue to have a line item for print
monographs for the future, albeit a modest one. Of course we rely on ILL a
great deal also, but are attempting to carefully examine Doc. Deli. and
ILL transactions to make adjustments to selection of on-site print
selections. We're lucky (though some might argue with this, I suppose) to
have a campus that has the technological infrastructure (and a commitment
to maintain its currency), and a population encouraged to take advantage
of technology (e.g. a "Technology-Information" breadth requirement) so
that as monograph-like electronic resources become available we will be
able to "collect" them quickly. Our plan is to contribute to that
availability by joining the many others of you who are creating, testing,
encouraging, and implementing the many efforts in electronic publishing. 

We try to consciously create and track both the advantages and hurdles of
our electronic approaches. I've focused on collections, but we're doing
much of what you would suspect to create a whole array of electronic
services as well. There are interesting consequences of it all, from
staffing patterns that look quite a bit different from the normal academic
library, to metrics of outcomes and performances that are, at best,
difficult to align with historical ones, and, at worst, inform only by
implication whether and how people are successfully using the library.

Anyway, I'd be happy to carry on this dialogue with any of you
individually or with the list if interest warrants it. Oh, and if you are
interested, be on the lookout for presentations and poster sesssions at
SLA, ALA, Online, etc. that we will continue to give.

John Ober
Development Librarian for Electronic Resources
California State University, Monterey Bay