2018 Charleston Library Conference

"Too often, conversations on library-vendor relationships focus on the power dynamics of the vendor and the library. For libraries, vendors hold the means and resources for content/software/service development to build seamless discovery and content delivery. From the vendor perspective, the library has many different internal cultures - the technical service/e-resource staff charged with building/maintaining a seamless discovery system, the public services staff charged with supporting the discovery service to library patrons and content selectors who are responsible for deciding which content to add to the “collection”. Even more complex is the matrix of consortial licensing and lending of print and electronic materials.

Many times, these library cultures are out of sync within their own institution and the vendor is blamed for lack of compatibility. An ideal situation would be an enhancement framework where all three library culture perspectives are represented and working closely with a content or service provider on continuous improvement of content discovery/delivery products and related services (such as RefWorks, Syndetics, etc.).

By entering a shared development relationship where the vendor has to deliver a number of enhancements/improvements for their product, is this enough “skin in the game” for librarians from all three cultures to participate? What is the right balance between an involved relationship between the user community and product management on the vendor side? Monthly virtual meetings? Listservs? Community engagement? A combination of these approaches?

Panelists will discuss a new agile-based approach within Ex Libris, ProQuest and its international User Groups to enhance and develop products using agile concepts of iteration, enhancement voting and deep stakeholder collaboration. Based on the Collaborative Software Development Agreement with Ex Libris, this project looks to see if content delivery and content operations are an appropriate fit for libraries and users of the ProQuest platform."