[WEB4LIB] Re: Impact of statewide database deals?

[Julia Schult]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Goerwitz III" <richard at goerwitz.com>
> Jerry Kuntz wrote:
> >
> > In New York State, remote access authentication methods are
> > negotiated between the vendors and the separate library systems
> > that register for access.
>
> This is interesting.  Let me play the adversary for a moment -
>
> Frankly, that sounds like no remote access solution at all.  NY
> has constituent institutions negotiating authentication and author-
> ization with each vendor, which isn't exactly efficient or con-
> sistent.  And each one has to negotiate remote access on its own,
> necessitating more individual negotiations with each vendor and/or
> individual and possibly redundant deployments of remote-access
> solutions like regular and reverse/rewriting proxy servers (some-
> thing many libraries don't have the systems people to support, and
> that those who have the systems people will now have to do redun-
> dantly).
>
> I'd be interested in hearing how you feel about this setup - and
> if I've misunderstood what's going on, please correct me, or add
> any details you think might interest those of us out here who are
> grappling with these same issues!

Okay, I'll bite... And may put my foot in my mouth, too...

Having just moved to New York State <3 years ago, it is very interesting to
grapple with how things work here.  We have the opposite problems the
Wyoming folks do.  There are so many libraries, so many different types of
libraries, and so many different communities with greatly differing needs,
that it is amazingly difficult to get anything accomplished at the state
level.  People in this state haggle over everything, with the urban vs.
rural, upstate vs. downstate, and other usually political differences adding
to the usual library differences of library type, size, and funding source.
That is why having the state do contractual pricing but leaving the details
to individual libraries is the first solution that has really worked in this
state; we sign our library up for the state contracted Health Reference
Database (for instance) at no charge, and integrate it with the way the rest
of our databases work.  My small private college library will not be
offering off-campus access until sometime this summer (knock on wood) while
others have been offering it for years.  But, there are so many people in
this state (almost 19 million according to the 2000 census) that to set up a
remote authentication system for all residents, that works, and to keep it
up-to-date, would require a level of cooperation and funding that, well,
seems rather out of reach.  We have more separate colleges (319) than any
other state in the country except California (396).  The SUNY schools are
starting to standardize services through state initiatives, but the public
library systems either each do their own thing or are in regional consortia.
When you have that broad a base of different technological yardsticks,
getting everyone to agree to a standard is difficult.

You used the phrase "isn't exactly efficient or consistent."  That describes
New York State to a T.  However, that doesn't mean that useful things can't
be done at the state level.  Things like giving a tool and letting each
library implement it within their own context.  I like that better than
giving a tool only to the public libraries and K-12s, or only to the
state-funded college libraries, or other piecemeal solutions.

---Julia E. Schult
Access/Electronic Services Librarian
Elmira College
Jschult at elmira.edu