proquest higher ed advisory board monday may 5, 2008 corey seeman kresge business administration...

ProQuest Higher Ed Advisory Board

Monday May 5, 2008

Corey SeemanKresge Business Administration

[email protected]

ProQuest Higher Ed Advisory Council

Monday May 5,2008 - Corey Seeman (University of Michigan)

Major Trends & Changes at Kresge

• Expanding ‘universe’ of information needs

• Changing from Library Size to Library Access~ Library purchased items~ Library ‘leased’ items~ Easy library access (Melcat - shared collection)~ More difficult library access - ILL~ Everything else (Google, etc.)

• We run the risk of viewing the library as a collection of what we control - our students & faculty do not see it that way.




• The students view the library as a portal to a great information universe

• They will use a very wide net - using Google first - This is fine

• MAP* is forcing us to truly revisit this approach - How can we create a value add to their experience

• Increasingly - students are asking our assistance to provide clarity




• Pricing issues for business resources• Some vendors are no longer courting the

academic market with lower prices to build brand recognition and loyalty

• Vendors such as Bloomberg have market saturation and have little desire or incentive to present us with academic pricing

• Some vendors are very concerned about access to walk-ins

• As they walk away from the academic market - we lose this information




• INTEROPERABILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!• Need systems that talk to each other• Balance between

‘compartmentalization’ and ‘simplification’ of information requests

• OUR PATRONS/CUSTOMERS DO NOT CARE where something is




Other Issues:• Authenticity for digitally-born documents• Leased vs. owned collections• Realistic pricing models:• Why am I buying access to a business

collection for philosophers, artists, doctors, historians, social workers, etc.

• Pricing should be based on a realistic FTE count of “interested” heads

• Why does the pricing vary if I have 5 campuses of 10K or 10 campuses of 5K




• Strong desire to create a database of Ross authors~ All formats (articles, books,

chapters)~ Will help with accreditation~ Will help students seek out

expertise on campus~ Will help the school promote its

scholarship



Future of Aggregation and A&I

• Very valuable tool for libraries in helping craft searches

• Very valuable tool for patrons to find similar materials

• Does a great job in crafting results - better than pure full-text searches




•‘2.5 million’ items•Ranked by relevance•Searches whatever data it can find




•149 items (last three months or 5229 for all)•Ranked by date•Strictly a full-text search




•792 items•Can use suggested topics•Can limit by format




• Our default is to search all ProQuest databases (different from main University Libraries)

• Can be expanded to include more open access content

• While it always finds less than Google - these can be more focused & potentially relevant

• To me…I do not care about ‘paying’ for Business Week five times



Other Thoughts and Comments

• Libraries need to exert their ability to provide a “competitive advantage”

• Very competitive environment for faculty, doctoral student and MBA student recruiting

• Excellent service and resources can sway people to come to your school



Other Thoughts and Comments

• We have to understand our role as a “monopoly” service provider

• Like Comcast, the postal service, local phone companies, most electrical companies, we:~ Have a monopoly for information services

on campus~ Run the risk of being tolerated - not loved~ Slow down the pace of change~ Slow down the adoption of innovation

• Google is a tool - not our competition



Thanks

Corey SeemanKresge Business Administration Library

University of [email protected]

proquest higher ed advisory board monday may 5, 2008 corey seeman kresge business administration...

Documents