consulting to academic libraries and library vendors
 

Professional Seminars

Emerging technologies, commercial products and industry trends can be difficult to track, especially when they are new. R2 works hard to keep their own knowledge base current and growing. As they research a topic, they consider its potential value to others, and create accessible learning tools.

Participants typically include librarians, publishers, web service providers, materials vendors and system vendors. R2 Seminars are generally three hours in length.

Whatever topic they address, Ruth and Rick effectively define and interpret important developments that will affect libraries. They are frequent speakers at major industry events, including the Charleston Library Conference, SSP, AAUP, and the American Library Association Conferences.

In addition to public events, R2 often collaborates with libraries or library groups to host and present private seminars.

Recent seminar topics include:

They are now preparing a new seminar concerning the Integration of Electronic Resources into the Library Workflow.

The Academic Library Market

This seminar is designed specifically for publishers and other service providers seeking to sell to the academic library market. Understanding the market size and composition, unique characteristics, budget cycles, and other factors impacting the decison-making process, will improve your opportunites for early success.

Increasing Efficiency in the Library Workflow

Technical services staffs are smaller than ever, and the tasks confronting them more complex and diverse. It is increasingly important that libraries identify a "mainstream of activity and material flowing into their collection. It is this clearly defined mainstream that can be automated, freeing staff time for truly unique materials, problem areas, and special projects.

Library staff must learn to view the technical services workflow in its entirety, from selection to access, if they are to understand and efficiently manage the connections, dependencies, and hand-offs between different departments and functions. When all the members of the library staff have a shared understanding of the big picture, they can better optimize use of the vendor system and the ILS in support of their workflows.

R2 workflow seminars include case studies and practical advice, as well as techniques for analyzing your institution's workflows. The best practices we advocate are techniques we've either used successfully ourselves, or have seen used well in libraries.

eBooks in Libraries

R2's involvement with eBooks began in 2000, when they saw the need for a tool to organize, manage and explain the vast amount of information appearing on the topic. They built a unique set of eBook Industry Maps that reflected the evolving business models among publishers, conversion houses, digital distribution companies, eBook vendors, and many others. Special attention is paid to eBook distribution models appropriate to the academic library market, including technologies that support simultaneous use, timed lending, and inter-library loan.

These maps are 3-dimensional, offering viewers both a high-level orientation to the eBook landscape and an in-depth look at multiple eBook models and the partnerships that have formed within each one.

Launch the interactive map.

R2's maps provide structure and context for the seminar which also includes demonstrations of various handheld and PC based technologies and an overview of current trends in the industry.

Discipline-Based Portals

Content mediation in the current library environment is primarily format-based, with the librarian at the hub, maintaining relationships with materials vendors who sell content in specific digital and print formats. In this seminar, we examine a different model for the identification and acquisition of relevant content for the library. Instead of working with traditional format-based mediators, we explore the trend toward discipline-based portals, and consider the benefits and drawbacks from the academic library perspective. We are curious, and we invite participants to think with us about the possibility of commercial, discipline-based portal providers that can build online learning and research environments appropriate to specific segments of the academic community.

The Amazon Effect, Virtual Approval Plans, and the Changing Nature of Book Selection

Although the phrase sounds more like a Robert Ludlum thriller than an actual phenomenon, the Amazon Effect echoes through the working days of all of us who deal with books and information:
 librarians, publishers, and vendors. From its inception, Amazon used the Web to expand the fundamentals of retail bookselling, bringing to readers a vast selection of titles and previously unknown levels of convenience. Because of its prominence in the media and mass market, Amazon has also influenced user expectations for library services: ie., why doesn't the library's OPAC look more like Amazon.com? The appeal is easily understood. In essence, a complete suite of services to help an individual identify, evaluate, choose, and transact upon titles of interest.

As patrons of the library OPAC, library selectors may well ask, "Why don't library book selection tools look more like Amazon.com?" Join us as we explore the real and potential opportunities for virtual selection/virtual approval using new and emerging linking technologies.

Visualization of Content

Remarkable visualization techniques have begun to emerge as key communication tools in several science and social science disciplines. This seminar provides a brief overview of some of the more dramatic and persuasive examples being developed by engineers and scholars around the world. We suggest that it will benefit all of us to know more about these new technologies for locating, learning, and sharing information.

Key concepts/topics/tools introduced in this seminar include: Linear/non-linear learning; concept maps; eBooks; web tracers; maps of cyberspace; dynamic diagrams; moving charts; interactive timelines; interactive mathematical models; molecular animation; and virtual reality.