A New Cooperative Model: Scholars, Librarians, Publishers, and the Production of Electronic Resources

Topic:

The Early English Books Online – Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP), a project run by the Universities of Michigan and Oxford with the support of the commercial publisher ProQuest Information and Learning and over 100 libraries worldwide has developed a new and unique way of bridging the gap between the perceived differences of scholars, librarians, and commercial publishers over electronic resources. This panel will discuss the electronic resource needs of their individual communities, how EEBO-TCP has or could meet these needs, and to place EEBO-TCP in the context of current collaborative projects and discuss how to best meet the needs of future scholars and teachers in an increasingly complex digital world.

In the growing world of electronic resources, researchers in the humanities have many projects available to them from both the academic and commercial world. Some of them are smaller more focused collections drawn from the interests of individual scholars others from academic libraries still others from commercial publishers. All of these groups have different needs. Publishers wish to remain proprietary over their product and prohibit wide distribution; librarians wish to integrate and distribute materials widely; scholars desire enhanced searching access to get more out of these sources. As a result, publishers have made large databases with great limitations on distribution and access. Libraries have made smaller standards-based collections that can integrate easily and thus be distributed widely. Scholars also have made smaller but more useful digital collections for specific areas. All of these projects are valuable in their own way. Yet, as an individual is it possible to have a resource useful for all three of these audiences?

In essence, the goal of publishers, scholars, and librarians should be the same, to enhance teaching and learning, but often reach this goal through different methods and with different intentions. EEBO-TCP has attempted to meet the needs of all of them. The library community has partnered with a commercial publisher to create a text file that will conform to generalized standards, will integrate into other library resources, and will eventually enter the public domain (allowing for broad distribution). Additionally, it is facilitating dialog between scholars and the partnership regarding text selection, research, and education. This way, scholars have the ability to help shape the project and to use the texts for other scholarly initiatives. Librarians have maintained standards and accessibility. Publishers have enhanced their product. Obviously, all sides have had to negotiate and compromise in order to “enhance teaching and learning,” but continue to reconcile the needs of many different stakeholders and accept the possible consequences of these actions.

By addressing the needs of scholars, librarians, and publishers in using and producing electronic resources, and by demonstrating how the EEBO-TCP has at least attempted to address these differing needs, it is hoped that there can be a dialog on how these three groups can begin to work together. No library could possibly have enough money to create as large a database as EEBO. No publisher could draw on the tremendous experience of scholars. No individual scholar could balance the competing needs of all three of these groups. Drawing on the infrastructure of a library with a vast amount of experience both with scholars and publishers, the TCP has put forth a model of possible future cooperation and one that can hopefully serve to promote future collaboration.

Organization:

Each speaker will have 10-15 minutes and there will be 15-20 minutes for general discussion

Ray Siemens will talk about how scholars in general use electronic resources, what their needs are in using these databases, and discuss general trends and advancements in the field.

Michael Popham will discuss the considerations librarians face when purchasing and integrating electronic resources and how trends have developed generally.

Dan Burnstone will discuss the perspective of commercial publishers, what they need to take into consideration when producing resources such as EEBO, and how the commercial market has developed

Shawn Martin will talk about the EEBO-TCP project, how it has attempted to address all of these needs, and how it has advanced both scholarly research and the landscape of electronic resources.

General Discussion about how the project can serve as a model for future collaboration and scholarship