The Research Library's Role in Digital Repository Services

ARL Digital Repositories Task Force Releases Final Report

Washington DC--The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Digital Repository Issues Task Force has released its final report. The task force was charged with evaluating trends, contextualizing repository activities among ARL libraries, and recommending leadership roles and activities for ARL.

The report, "The Research Library's Role in Digital Repository Services," identifies key issues surrounding repository development, explores common strategies that libraries are using, analyzes relevant environmental trends, discusses issues where ARL and its member libraries should focus attention, and recommends the following actions for research libraries to undertake:

• Build a range of new kinds of partnerships and alliances, both within institutions and between institutions.
• Base service-development strategies on substantive assessment of local needs rather than blindly replicating work done at another institution.
• Engage with key local policy issues and stakeholders to encourage institutional engagement with national and international policy issues.
• Develop outreach and marketing strategies that assist "early adopters" of repositories to connect with the developing repository-related service system.
• Define a scope of responsibility to guide the development of repository services for varied forms of content.

The report focuses on repository services generally, rather than concentrating on repository technologies or content. Repository services include services to authors, contributors, and users, particularly of university-created content. Some examples of repository services provided by research libraries include long-term archiving and migration of content, dissemination and access management, metadata and format management, search and discovery tools, publishing, data mining, etc. Illustrations drawn from a variety of digital repositories are used throughout the report.

The task force notes that, due to repository services' powerful potential to enable key work and enhance the effectiveness of functions across the research enterprise, research institutions cannot afford to do without such services, even in difficult economic times. Researchers and scholars with access to a spectrum of repository services possess a substantial advantage in conducting cutting-edge research, delivering high-quality teaching, and contributing valuable services to society. Libraries have key strengths and missions requiring them to undertake various roles in repository service development. This report presents a fresh perspective on the digital repository environment and is intended to inspire ARL member libraries and others to assess their views and plans for service development.

The report is freely available on the ARL Web site http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/repository-services-report.pdf.

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The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.

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Gerencia del Conocimiento: Algunos aspectos claves y la Web 2.0, por el Dr. José Sánchez-Lugo

Gerencia del Conocimiento

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http://www.slideshare.net/jasanchez/gerencia-del-conocimiento-361610

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Visión canadiense de la gerencia del conocimiento

NRCan Knowledge Management Vision



http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=9vm77Ge2Kxs

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Knowledge Management naturally green, by Judith Lamont

"Going green" has become a topic of increased attention lately, but it’s nothing new to knowledge management. By its nature, knowledge management promotes efficiency and optimal use of resources, which often reduces the amount of energy required to achieve a given goal. What has changed is the heightened awareness of those benefits. That awareness is creating new interest in KM solutions that can improve business performance while reducing environmental effects. Knowledge management also plays a role in the software tools that help companies improve their energy management, embedding expertise in algorithms to optimize use of office equipment and energy in buildings.

Many knowledge management solutions, including records management (RM) and enterprise content management (ECM), reduce the use of paper. In addition, online collaboration and online meeting solutions can greatly cut down on the need for travel to meetings. Although reducing the carbon footprint of IT centers is also important, transportation accounts for 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Energy Information Administration. That contrasts to just 2 percent accounted for by information and communication technology, according to figures from Gartner, so savings in travel has a larger potential impact on the environment.

In the past, larger companies were well positioned to make use of knowledge management solutions that transformed paper-based information into digital information because they could justify and afford the investment. Now, the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market has more choices, with the lower entry costs for software as a service (SaaS) products, for example. In the last decade, digital storage of information has also become the norm, and SMBs are seeing it as the default option. Savings accrue both in paper and mailing costs, and in time.

DocuShare from Xerox is an ECM software product that is attractive to SMBs and larger companies alike because of its moderate cost and ease of use.

"DocuShare stores and categorizes electronic content into different collections, essentially replacing the paper-based file cabinet," says Melinda Stoker, director of marketing communications for the DocuShare division at Xerox. "It has robust functionality, ranks high in usability, scales well and enables organizations to automate business processes so paper is no longer required."

DocuShare makes information available via a secure Web-based interface so that users can access it no matter where they are. Savings from the conversion to electronic documents can be considerable, even for relatively small companies.

"We have one customer in the insurance services business that is saving $8,000 to $10,000 a month in paper and toner after switching to DocuShare," says Stoker, "and the company has about 50 employees." Service has also improved because customer claims can be accessed immediately.

Electronic invoices cut costs, not trees

Invoices are another document type that is continuing to undergo digital conversion. OB10 provides a service that processes invoices for large corporations such as Apple. "Processing paper is slow and expensive," says Peter Watson, senior VP of sales and marketing for OB10. "We can enroll suppliers and submit their invoices electronically to our customers."

Watson cites two reasons why companies may not be submitting invoices electronically directly to their customers. "In some cases, they simply have not been asked to," he explains, "so they continued with their legacy process. But more importantly, their system may not be compatible with that of their customer, so they continued to mail paper invoices."

OB10 can receive electronic invoices in any format and send them on in the format desired by the recipient. For any company that cannot produce an electronic invoice, OB10 will scan a paper invoice. In addition to expediting the invoicing process through that conversion, OB10 also validates the invoices to make sure they are complete; if they are not, they are sent back to the supplier.

A comparable service is available for accounts payable. "OB10 matches a purchase order against an invoice, which then goes directly into the ERP [enterprise resource planning] for payment," Watson says.

Using statistics from conservation experts, OB10 calculates that in 2007, its electronic invoicing system saved more than 1,000 trees. In addition, the impact of paper savings ripples through other elements, such as oil and gas for transportation, electricity, air pollutants and landfill space that were not factors. OB10 cites estimates that production of paper invoices uses enough electricity annually to power 20 million homes, and that they would take up as much space as 10 football fields stacked 100 feet deep. Not to mention the storage space before they get to the landfill.

For the record

Storage costs can accrue for both paper and electronic files, but effective RM helps reduce both. "The average electronic document data is stored 12 times," says Patrick Eitenbichler, director of product marketing for information management software and solutions at Hewlett-Packard (HP). "By the time you have a production copy, remote replication, snapshots, disk and tape-based backup, and other copies, storage can add up. Therefore it’s important to proactively manage and delete documents that are at the end of their life cycle."

HP purchased Tower Software, which developed the TRIM records management software product, to augment its e-discovery and compliance solutions. HP TRIM Software manages both paper and digital records. (It also includes document management, Web content management, document-centric collaboration and other components.)

"Documents in paper format can either be back-scanned or left as is, and only scanned if they are requested," Eitenbichler says, "an approach that can aid in the transition to digital without unnecessary processing. The retention schedule will be implemented regardless of the form in which the document exists at the time."

During the time that the document is retained, storage requirements can be reduced via deduplication by having only one physical copy of the production document, with pointers from virtual repositories.

Options for audits

Some companies may wonder how to get started in the process of greening their business. Numerous tools are available that provide audits with varying degrees of sophistication. Xerox has developed the Sustainability Calculator, an interactive tool that assesses the impact of a company’s existing office equipment on the environment.

Source: KMWorld http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=53068766282&h=XawfL&u=Z8Mss

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Checking Under the Hood: Why Open Source might be right for your library...

Stranack, Kevin Checking Under the Hood: Why open source might be right for your library., 2009 . In Ontario Library Association Super Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 2009.

Abstract

Are you hearing more and more about open source? Are you wondering how it might benefit your library? From basic desktop applications to fully-featured integrated library systems, open source is becoming a serious option that all libraries must consider as part of any software procurement process. Get an overview of open source software, discuss how it differs from proprietary software, and examine its use in libraries. You will come away with options you can implement immediately (well, at work on Monday), as well as ideas to consider in long-term systems planning.

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