The National Documentation Centre (EKT) of Greece: responding to changing user needs and patterns of library usage

The National Documentation Centre (EKT) of Greece: responding to changing user needs and patterns of library usage Maria Paschou (mpasxo@ekt.gr) National Documentation Centre (EKT) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation Information, Reference & Instructional services Unit

Introduction to EKT sscientific and Technological information services The National Documentation Centre (EKT) of Greece, is a service unit of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) Since 1980, EKT'sS&T Library services, aim at the country's entire scientific and business community either public or private sector by : providingintermediated Scientific & Technological (S&T) information services, operating both traditional and digital library, developing and maintaining Greek digital content, such as the National Archive of PhD Theses, Supporting the automation and networking of libraries developing the Union Catalogue of Serials in S & T Greek libraries. 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 2

Introduction to EKT sscientific and Technological information services Organization and structure of EKT are based on its 2 principal activities: Collection & Organization and Dissemination of information 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 3

Introduction to EKT sscientific and Technological information services Collection and organization of S&T information National Archive of PhD Theses (more than 16,000 records / 13,500 out of them, with full text digitised) the Union Catalogue of Journals of the Hellenic S&T libraries (27,000 records/journal titles from the collections of 233 libraries) NHRF sinstitutional Repository HELIOS based on Open Access technologies, aiming to collect, preserve, and disseminate online, the intellectual output of the different Research Institutes comprising NHRF. 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 4

Introduction to EKT sscientific and Technological information services Dissemination of S&T Information Databases, freely available online, enhancing the processes of scholarly and library communication and also of national-wide value Intermediated library information services Bibliographic Reference Services Document Delivery & Interlibrary Loan Services 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 5

Introduction to EKT sscientific and Technological information services Dissemination of S&T Information Databases, freely available online, enhancing the processes of scholarly and library communication and also of national-wide value Intermediated library information services Bibliographic Reference Services Document Delivery & Interlibrary Loan Services 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 6

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 3.000 2.500 2.000 1.500 1.000 500 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.1 Bibliographic reference services- No of requests through the years 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 7

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 45,00% 42,09% 40,00% 35,00% 30,00% 25,00% 20,00% 18,83% 27,82% 15,00% 8,14% 10,00% 5,00% 3,11% 0,00% Academic Communit y Public Hospitals Research Institutes Public Sectror Private Sector Fig.2 Bibliographic reference services- requests per user type 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 8

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 1400 1200 1000 800 Academic Communit y Public Hospitals Research Institutes Public Sectror Private Sector 600 400 200 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.3 Bibliographic reference services- evolution of requests per user type 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 9

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 17,94% 4,91% 3,94% Biology Education 5,53% Medicine Business & Economics Arts & Humanities 4,19% P hysics 4,08% 2,23% 2,40% 46,74% Chemistry P sychology Others Fig.4. Bibliographic reference services- requests by broad subject field 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 10

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 OUTCOMES: Trends in Bibliographic reference services: accelerated decline in requests (7%) - Disintermediation users from the medical sector (EKT smajor users) access free medical resources on the Internet (eg. Medline is free since the mid-1990s) the proliferation of digital information retrieval resources andthe explosive growth in access afforded by the Internet end-user-centric interfaces, offering the ease of point-and-click -no need for expertise in command languages users can obtain, at least the bibliographic data and abstracts of scientific articles via most publishers websites or Google Scholar user-groups from pharmaceutical sector (e.g. pharmaceutical corporate users) have obtained access to online full text resources in order to ensure high-speed and copyright-compliant electronic delivery to serve their needs R&D activities are declining in Greece 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 11

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 20.000 18.000 16.000 19.667 17.095 16.522 17.118 14.000 12.000 10.000 12.102 14.336 15.041 14.949 16.129 14.039 13.456 8.000 6.000 4.000 2.000 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.5 DDS & ILL services-no of requests through the years 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 12

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 4.500 4.000 3.500 3.000 3.919 3.973 4.254 14.000 2.500 2.000 2.804 3.088 2.750 12.000 10.000 8.000 6.000 4.000 6.880 9.995 13.000 8.657 7.156 6.784 5.594 4.750 8.000 1.500 1.000 500 0 270 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.7 DDS & ILLrequests satisfied from EKT sprint & digital resources 2.000 3.714 3.309 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.6 DDS & ILL requests satisfied from resources form abroad 8.000 7.000 6.000 5.000 4.000 3.000 2.000 4.922 4.041 6.367 6.084 7.223 7.207 7.180 7.521 6.054 5.597 4.818 1.000 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig.8 DDS & ILLrequests satisfied from Greek Library Network resources 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 13

Intermediated library information services through the years 1998-2008 OUTCOMES: Trends in DDS & ILL services: no substantial variations in fromyear-to-year, noticeable change in breakdown of the resources exploited full-text is not freely available to internet users the impact of Open Access Journals (OAJ) on traditional subscription-based journals of high quality is not, yet, visible the majority of users are from the private sector- need for high-speed justin-time document delivery services decline in orders that are addressed to libraries from abroad (e.g. BLDSC, Subito, etc) in favor of the EKT slibrary resources and other Greek library collections, due to the widening of EKT selectronic collection through new subscriptions and collaborative schemas, and the enhancement of the functionality of the Greek Network of S&TLibraries through the years. 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 14

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Facilitation of disintermediatedaccess to information by: increase of the available workstations, in the Library Electronic Reading Room, from 8 to 20 offering WiFiservices, with free access to internet for all library visitors better organizing the available electronic information resources of the EKT s Digital Library Training and seminars addressed to users on how to better exploit the offered information resources 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 15

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Improve the quality of services offered design of customized services to the scientific community high-speed, high-quality services, for lesser popular, and hard to find material and information. Facilitation of users via web-form, electronically followup of the request, electronic delivery of the results Broadening of collaborations and content, in order to be able to provide a full package, covering all kinds of information carriers. Specific current-awareness information retrieval and document delivery services, to specific groups of users 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 16

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Beyond commercial information resources. Open Access Institutional Repository HELIOS, is a digital collection of research articles preprints (journal articles before publication), postprints(journal articles after publication), theses, monographs, technical reports, working papers, etc. that constitute the NHRF s scientific output with the collaboration of the NHRF and other research institutes, development of open access scientific journals in the disciplines of Humanities, Biology- Biotechnology, Chemistry and Medical Studies. 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 17

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Library staff re-deployment merge of existing help desks into one staff is encouraged to maintain contact with the changing library landscape (meetings, discussions, attend conferences etc.) Staff rotating, for familiarity with all library services 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 18

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Promotional approaches Objectives to raise awareness to remind users what we do to maintain a brand image to encourage users back into the library increase the usage of information resources 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 19

Responding to changing user-needs and patterns of library services usage at EKT Promotional approaches Methods of communicating Press releases ref to activities and events Release of an Annual Report (both print and electronic) newsletter Youtube.com video Presentation in a TV broadcast Focus on the welcoming, appealing and utilitarian library environment Leaflets Schedule group visits 31-May-10 Satellite Meeting:Athens, Greece, 19-21 August 2009 20