3 results
3 - Denmark's Electronic Research Library: implementation of user-friendly integrated search systems in Denmark
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- By Bo Öhrström, Danish National Library Agency, Denmark
- Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
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- Book:
- Libraries Without Walls 7
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2008, pp 17-28
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
In 2003 Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF in Danish) became a permanent activity on the Danish budget after a five-year project period. The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation continued to finance DEFF annually through the national budget with 17 million DKK (2.3 million euros). 1 January 2007 marked the beginning of a new planning period with a new steering committee, a changed organization and additional activities.
DEFF is a co-operative organization for Danish research libraries. All participants in DEFF have slowly learned to seek co-operation in most areas in order to avoid duplicating work and to increase the value of individual efforts. The main target group for DEFF is still researchers, lecturers and students at institutions of higher or further education and research institutions within the public sector, who are primarily serviced directly through the institutions that participate in DEFF. The overall objective is to ensure an optimal exploitation of the institutions’ research-based information resources. The implementation of user-friendly integrated search systems in Denmark is in this respect an obvious activity within the framework of the DEFF strategy. Parts of the systems can be shared, and the systems support the overall objective of DEFF.
Challenges for a research library
DEFF has identified three important activity areas for research libraries in Denmark, which are the results of the changing roles of libraries in the digital environment (DEFF, 2006). These areas pose major challenges for the libraries, and therefore become targets for DEFF's manpower and funding efforts:
In the e-publishing area libraries are defining new tasks for themselves, and DEFF is among other things supporting institutional repositories and migration of journals to Open Access. Furthermore, research registration and a common research database are in focus. DEFF has been the political advocate for Open Access in Denmark and has provided support for it through an EU petition in February 2007 made by the Knowledge Exchange partnership. DEFF's partners in Knowledge Exchange are the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Germany, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK and the SURF Foundation (SURF) in the Netherlands. In the near future DEFF will be launching pilot projects with publications’ underlying datasets in line with the development of e-science and e-research.
3 - Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
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- By Bo Öhrström, Deputy Director, Danish National Library Authority, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, Margaret Markland
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- Book:
- Libraries Without Walls 6
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 08 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 18 May 2006, pp 14-24
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF in Danish) is a co-operation organization for Danish reseach libraries. In early 2004 a new vision and mission formed the basis of a new strategy, and an action plan for 2004/5 was developed. DEFF's main target group is researchers, lecturers and students at institutions of higher or further education, and research institutions in the public sector.
One of the most important results of the activities over the years is the achieved level of library co-operation. All participants have learned to seek cooperation in areas such as operation and development in order to avoid duplicating work and to increase the value of individual efforts. An important area for co-operation is the evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests, and these have been carried out for several years.
In the DEFF framework several evaluations examine the impact of electronic services on users, and this paper describes a large user survey from 2003 of three big Danish university libraries and usability tests of the websites of 11 of the biggest research libraries in Denmark.
The user survey exploits the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model, which is a standardized instrument for measurement and can be used by different libraries across types and countries. At the same time it is a unique platform for benchmarking and a tool for prioritizing activities for improvement. It can even be used for comparison of results across libraries and other sectors (compared to banks, supermarkets etc.).
The usability tests of the websites of 11 of the biggest Danish research libraries are based on user interviews and user behaviour studies. Again the tests can give the individual university library important information about how to improve the value of the electronic library services to the users.
User survey and usability test co-operation
As mentioned above, one important area for co-operation is the evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests. The specific reasons for co-operation are:
• Better exploitation of resources. There is increasing economy of scale in nearly all phases of the implementation of user surveys and usability tests. As an example, typically the libraries will get more value for money by co-operating on a standardized questionnaire with local adjustments.
• Better results. The libraries can demand a tailor-made product of higher quality, when the task reaches a certain size.
19 - Denmark's electronic research library: from national project to permanent activity
- from THEME 4 - DESIGNING THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT: NATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVES
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- By Bo Öhrström, Deputy Director, Danish National Library Authority, Denmark
- Edited by Peter Brophy, Shelagh Fisher, Jenny Craven
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- Book:
- Libraries Without Walls 5
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 08 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 15 June 2004, pp 195-203
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Summary
Introduction
During 1998 to 2002, Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEF – Danmarks Elektroniske Forskningsbibliotek) was a large government-funded project that aimed to build a national virtual research library in Denmark. The project had a vision of a single virtual research library focused on the need to provide easy access to scientific information for researchers and students in Denmark.
In spring 2002 the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation evaluated the project. The project's results proved to be so successful that DEF was placed as a permanent activity on the government's budget proposal. In December 2002 the budget was approved, and the continuation of DEF became a reality. This paper describes the development of the project. A new organization has been set up and a framework for future activities has been designed.
The budget for the permanent DEF was reduced significantly compared with the budget allocated to it in the project period. However, it was a major achievement to get any funding – the initial planning was to give no money at all – and the resulting budget allows important activities to continue and new ones to start. The reduced budget stresses the need for there to be even closer co-operation in the library sector, and the existing co-operation has to be carefully maintained and developed.
With the same reasoning the existing international co-operation should be strengthened. International co-operation is crucial in order to get more fair terms and prices for the libraries, especially for licences for electronic resources. Other international activities such as SPARC (www.sparceurope.org/) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative should support these efforts in order to create change and to achieve some competition in the market.
Background to DEF
The national project – Denmark's Electronic Research Library – aimed to move the Danish libraries from being automated, conventional, co-operating individual libraries to the state of one large, coherent, electronic library structure providing integrated information services.
The project was defined in a project description of September 1996 by the three ministries involved: the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Education. A governmental agency, UNI-C, and the management consulting firm, Ernst & Young, then conducted a study, and published a report (Denmark, Ministry of Culture, 1997), which described a vision for the development of the research libraries in Denmark.