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PROG 43,1

An integrated library platform

Wales approach to delivering digital information and resources nationally
Paul Bevan
The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK, and

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Received 23 September 2008 Revised 22 October 2008 Accepted 31 October 2008

Alyson Tyler
CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Aberystwyth, UK
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to outline the developments and strategies employed to supply online library services in Wales through a national platform: library.wales.org These services include: the Cat Cymru cross-catalogue search, centrally procured subscription resources and local library microsites. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the key areas of development against the backdrop of current library policy in Wales. Findings By reviewing the strategic and policy background, outlining the key elements of the projects, and reviewing the future directions for this work, the paper shows how a national approach is leading to an improved cohesive delivery of services to Welsh citizens. Originality/value The work outlined in this paper represents the signicant and valuable progress made in Wales in regard to the provision of centrally funded online services to all libraries and library users. Keywords Digital libraries, Wales Paper type Case study

1. Introduction The enhancement of online services for libraries in Wales has beneted from recent investment and co-ordinated participation from the library sector in Wales. A multi-phased approach has been developed which co-ordinates the provision of information about libraries in Wales, electronic reference material, and a single cross-catalogue search facility. These inter-related developments are part of the Welsh Assembly Governments Libraries for Life strategic programme. The online services described in this article are delivered by the National Library of Wales (NLW), on behalf of all libraries in Wales in conjunction with a project board with representatives from all library sectors. This provides a national steer, and also utilises the expertise and resources of staff at the NLW.
Program: electronic library and information systems Vol. 43 No. 1, 2009 pp. 36-48 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0033-0337 DOI 10.1108/00330330910934093

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of all the members of the Online Services Project Board as well as CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales and The National Library of Wales. All references were checked on 22 October 2008.

2. Background Since 2004 Wales has seen a dramatic increase in investment in its libraries, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. The current strategy, Libraries for Life, oversees developments from 2008-2011, with a budget of 10.5 million. The strategy is cross sectoral and involves public, academic, workplace and health libraries the incidental benets of which are improved communication, networking and partnerships between libraries in Wales. The Libraries for Life programme comprises six work strands: (1) Community Learning Libraries a capital investment programme for improving public library buildings. (2) Online Services a combination of online content and resources for, and about, Welsh libraries. (3) Regional framework ve regional developments ofcers increasing capacity and helping to implement the various strands. (4) Marketing a national programme of training, promotional campaigns and marketing resources (5) Workforce development bursaries for.a variety of qualications for library staff in Wales. (6) Welsh Public Library Standards implementation of the Third Framework of standards for public libraries in Wales. The Libraries for Life programme is delivered by CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (www.wales.gov.uk/cymal), a policy division of the Welsh Assembly Government, in co-operation with partners such as the NLW and Wrexham County Borough Council, both of whom lead on specic strands. CyMAL was set up in 2004 after consultation with the museum, archive and library sector in Wales, following similar developments in England. Where CyMAL differs from its sister organisation in England (the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)) is that CyMAL is a part of the government, whereas the MLA is a separate organisation. The advantages for Wales include greater access to the Minister for Heritage (whose portfolio covers museums, archives and libraries) leading to better opportunities for increased funding. For example, prior to CyMAL, the library sector was allocated 30,000 a year for developmental work; the rst Wales-wide libraries strategy under CyMAL, @ your library 2005-2007, saw this jump to 1 million each year. This sum increased again for Libraries for Life to 10.5 million for 2008-2011. An evaluation of the rst all-Wales library programme (@ your library) found that:
The ndings of this report clearly demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the Programme in addressing library development needs (Simon and Horton, 2007, p. 94). In addition: There was widespread agreement as to the appropriateness and indeed timeliness of the work strands and areas for development emphasised in the initial strategic document (Simon and Horton, 2007, p. 92). Libraries for Life is building on the success of its predecessor by continuing investment in the areas outlined previously. The six work strands, while separate, are all inter-related with the overall intention of improving the users experience of libraries throughout Wales. The programme is delivered through a combination of strategic level grants for national work, e.g. marketing, electronic resources and competitive grants to library organisations within dened themes and areas of activities.

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3. Integrated library platform The Online Services strand (Strand 2) focuses on integrating three important elements: (1) Provision of electronic reference material. (2) Resource discovery through a single cross-catalogue search for libraries in Wales. (3) Provision of a single Welsh libraries web site (http://library.wales.org) as shown in Figure 1. This third element provides access to both the electronic resources and the Wales-wide library catalogue search facility, along with access to additional resources and information. Work began on these three elements in the @ your library programme with the NLW leading on the rst two elements as part of its agreed work programme with CyMAL. Since 2007 it has also won the competitive grant process in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 to continue the developments of a web portal. While the NLW has been involved in previous resource discovery and electronic resource provision projects, the opportunity to lead on the implementation of the library.wales.org web portal provided the perfect opportunity to build on existing work to further integrate these projects through a single open platform for delivering online services to Welsh library users. All of this has been made possible by the move to a substantially more robust and versatile infrastructure for the portal. The site itself has moved from a largely bespoke

Figure 1. Homepage of library.wales.org web site

structure requiring much manual intervention to the open-source, plugin-based, Typo3 Content Management System, allowing the simple addition of new features and information. To support this move, a large-scale migration of content and functionality was undertaken providing a continuous service for users while also facilitating the need to support future development. 4. Delivering information 4.1 Online reference material The library.wales.org web portal was seen as the most effective way of providing a single point of access to library resources in Wales, particularly to the centrally-purchased electronic reference material. In 2006 CyMAL funded a portfolio of online reference information to the Welsh library users for two years. In 2008, the initial pilot provision for further and higher education, public and national libraries came to an end and a second procurement was undertaken which extended the provision to include health and government libraries as well as increasing the scope of resources within the tender. The decision was taken to fund the resources fully, for all the specied libraries in order to make a national all-Wales offer that could be easily understood by the public. This approach was selected after reviewing models in other countries. In both 2006-2008 and 2008-2010 ProQuest won the procurement with its KnowUK and NewsUK resources. Access to these resources for citizens in Wales is via the library.wales.org portal, as well as via individual library webpages (see Figure 2). The funding allocated to the online resources provides for the cost of the resources themselves, as well as funding a Project Ofcer based at NLW. That individual administered the extensive Ofcial Journal of the European Union procurement, provides additional training and support to libraries involved, facilitates meetings and co-ordinates communication between librarians and ProQuest. Over the duration of this project, the differing needs of the Welsh library community have been revealed, and future procurement models are being explored so that the best matches can be made for library users in Wales. The current provision extends until 2010, and discussions as to future funding models to sustain and expand the range of resources procured at a national level are already underway. As a result, the impact of the availability of these resources, and the corresponding desire of libraries to continue their provision, will be a signicant reection of the success of the project. Beyond the project itself, the provision of a central pool of resources has provoked further discussion about the future of electronic resource procurement in Wales, and investigations into future co-operative, centralised, purchasing in line with other national procurement models is already underway. 4.2 Library portal Since its launch in 2006 the library.wales.org portal has grown into an online resource for the library community. A key commitment has been to ensure that the site is fully bilingual (English/Welsh) as well as meeting current web accessibility guidelines. For the NLW, the potential to lead on the development of the portal represented an exciting

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Figure 2. Homepage of KnowUK as accessed via library.wales.org

opportunity for the library to expand further its level of engagement with other libraries in Wales. The site itself seeks to provide many of the resources found in libraries in an open and versatile online space. Key to the success of the site has been the extensive database of web sites sourced from the web cataloguing programme known as Wales on the web. Wales on the Web (Betts, 2003) was a 2002-2007 Welsh Assembly Government funded project which created records for web sites of Welsh interest and

which are now included in the NLW catalogue. The portal also provides access to a range of validated and relevant web sites, carefully selected by professional librarians. The topic areas selected were based on the Oxford Internet Institutes Internet Surveys research, which highlighted the key search areas people use on the Internet (Dutton et al., 2005).The advantage of providing a selection of useful links is that users can be assured they are accessing trusted web sources without pop-ups, adverts and the like, an important issue for parents and a key method of continuing the trust engendered by libraries into the online world. Bringing the site into the core infrastructure of the NLW has allowed it to tie directly into the Librarys integrated library management system, VTLS Virtua (Foster Evans and Thomas, 2007), which in turn gives direct access to the constantly updated and vetted list of web sites catalogued by NLW staff. This merging of processes has removed the need for a separate system for adding, updating and checking web sites to ensure that the database remains current and relevant while minimising the effort of the project team. The portal also enables access to electronic resources provided under the ProQuest contract and additional resources procured for Welsh libraries both on a national and regional level (e.g. European Sources Online, currently funded until 2009). This, combined with the infrastructure changes, has positioned the library.wales.org portal as the ideal gateway for providing future electronic resources. Reecting traditional library services, library.wales.org is a point of access for the Ask a librarian service Ask Cymru. Through a simple web interface, Ask Cymru provides access to the research and enquiry skills of librarians from across Wales and a signicant proportion of the current phase of library.wales.org development will be focused on rening and developing this service in order to make the best use of the resources libraries in Wales have devoted to the scheme. Geographical relevance has become a central part of the revised infrastructure of the portal. Information about user location and library afliation is collected on registration, allowing content from local libraries to be positioned in key information hotspots on the site and for authentication of resources which are conned to a regional level. This approach does not preclude people from outside Wales from accessing most of the features of the site and every attempt is made to ensure that information is relevant to those who are not registered or have not provided location information. Simple lists and maps had previously been placed on the site, but in the new library.wales.org web site, Google maps are an integral element and have been used to represent and supply information directly to the user in a more interactive way. These maps are also shared with the community, allowing libraries and other library-related sites to make use of them. The geographical perspective is also reected in the Your Library section of the site as can be seen in Figure 3. Previous experiences had shown that users were keen to have centralised access to information about their own local libraries. Furthermore, staff from public libraries in Wales had approached CyMAL to seek an environment in which they could add content related to their library services which did not harmonise with the corporate information provided on their local authority web sites.

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Figure 3. The library.wales.org portal Your Library geographical layout

The desire to full this need was a signicant driver in the selection of a Content Management System based infrastructure, allowing a simple and clear interface for staff from libraries to add information to their own sections within the site. In order to ensure that these microsites sat comfortably with the portal as a whole a unied branding scheme and initial structure were implemented providing the freedom for libraries to convey local information while avoiding confusion for users navigating within the site. This allows the project to leverage resources within libraries in Wales so as to provide a level of content far above that which would have been possible with just a central project team. As a result, however, the continued success of the site is dependent on engaging librarians in Wales as well as users and this has been a key area of work for project staff. Librarians have so far added a wide range of material, including images, text, event information and video clips. While training has been provided to staff at all levels, matching the varying organisational structures of library services, the greatest success has been achieved through tapping into content streams which already exist including the work of public relations ofcers, regional partnerships and those specically tasked with updating authority and other web sites. There are also signicant levels of professional content, which could be sourced from existing staff-to-staff web pages covering best practice and operational procedures. Amalgamating with the Libraries for Life professional portal the

Library Toolkit will also be a driver for staff to visit the site helping to increase understanding and promote library.wales.org as a conduit for local library information. This toolkit was originally developed as part of the Marketing strand and provides staff with an extensive range of resources to support local and national marketing activities. The exible component-based design allows for the provision of this wide range of services and resources and also for the addition of new features in direct response to the requirements of the library users and the professional community. For CyMAL, library.wales.org represents a point of presence for the Libraries for Life programme, providing an integrated platform of online services for both the public and libraries. 5. Delivering resources Discussions regarding the provision of an all-Wales library search are not new. However, during 2005-2007 they became more concrete with the publication of two research reports (Detraz, 2005; Resource Discovery and Delivery Wales Working Group, 2007), which identied possible ways forward. During 2007-2008 the Libraries for Life programme was able to deliver on this long-term goal through the creation of the Cat Cymru service. The principle behind Cat Cymru is a simple one: to provide a single search facility for all library resources in Wales. However, achieving this goal requires live searching of more than 50 online catalogues in all libraries in Wales (covering public, education, health and government libraries as well as the NLW). Figure 4 shows the opening screen of a simple Cat Cymru search. Providing a shared catalogue for a group of libraries is not unique to Wales. Many collaborative union catalogues (such as the Copac Academic and National Library catalogue of some 30 major research libraries in the UK www.copac.ac.uk) exist as do national catalogue searching portals (for example the BorrowBooks.ie system

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Figure 4. Cat Cymru simple search for items on genealogy

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launched in Ireland in 2007, the Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog catalogue at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany (www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk/kvk/kvk_en. html), and Bibliotek Denmark http://bibliotek.dk/). Where Cat Cymru differs, however, is through the provision of live cross-sector searching with the diversity of up-to-date data greatly increasing the signicance for the citizen in Wales. Figure 5 shows some of the results of the search for items on genealogy and the range of types of libraries covered can be seen with items in a further education college (Coleg Sir Gar), a public library (Rhondda Cynon Taf), a university library (Bangor), and a government library (Ofce for National Statistics). In tackling this challenge the cross-sectoral Resource Discovery and Delivery Wales (RDDW) group evaluated approaches ranging from union catalogues to Z39.50 based searches. After a signicant procurement and evaluation process the eventual solution was based on direct access to the web catalogue of each organisation. While this limited the solution to those catalogues, which had an online OPAC, in reality this, included the majority of library systems in Wales. In comparison, only 34 libraries in Wales support a public Z39.50 connection. In addition, after consultation and research conducted by the RDDW group it became clear that signicant resources would be required to create and implement a system for importing and collating data from a wide range of library management systems with the added disadvantage that results would not be live.

Figure 5. Results of a Cat Cymru search

The successful tendering company was WebFeat, a company whose expertise lies primarily with the searching of subscribed electronic resources which are queried using translators, and university library federated searches (Wisniewski, 2007). Essentially, these translators are screen scraping interfaces which search remote web sites before combining the output into a unied results list. Within Wales, WebFeats solution was already in place as part of the Gateways to Learning (www. gatewaystolearning.com) group, providing a search and requesting mechanism for eight libraries in south east Wales. Cat Cymru is, therefore, dependent on the setup of each individual catalogue and this in itself has created some challenges. The decisions of each organisation and each systems librarian affects the results provided to the end user and any change in library management system or even design may affect the performance of Cat Cymru. As a result, signicant and prolonged testing, rst by a closed group and in mid-2008 through a public beta test, has been necessary in order to eliminate problems arising from the differing setups of so many independent library catalogues. The outcome, however, is a unique provision: a simple national search, which returns the holdings of library catalogues from all sectors. This development will enable libraries in Wales to evaluate their collections and to explore ways of pursuing collaborative collection and resourcing activities. The immediate response from many areas has been to highlight the ability of Cat Cymru to increase the provision of material to the public. The potential of Cat Cymru and library.wales.org to provide a platform for a national delivery solution is clear. However, in order to achieve this, the RDDW group has been reviewing the existing formal and informal provision of interlibrary loans within Wales, and CyMAL has commissioned additional research across all library sectors to explore possible delivery mechanisms. Wales already has a variety of local and regional formal and informal groupings with differing levels of reciprocal access and borrowing, and these may well provide a useful platform for additional resource discovery and delivery mechanisms utilising Cat Cymru. Examples of such groups include: . Bavalinc for Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan Libraries: www.bavalinc.org. uk/ . GaLW Wrexham area libraries: www.newi.ac.uk/galw/ . Gateways to Learning: www.gatewaystolearning.com/ . Linc y Canolbarth Mid-Wales Libraries: www.lincycanolbarth.org.uk/lyc.php . Linc y Gogledd North Wales Libraries: www.lincygogledd.org.uk/ . SWAP South Wales Area Partnership: www.swapcymru.co.uk/ The initial steps for a delivery scheme are already under development, with the provision of a national online registration gateway due to be launched in Autumn/Winter 2008 for public libraries, and a series of resource delivery pilots to follow. Within the current Cat Cymru solution there is also an integrated requesting system designed to sit above existing interlibrary loan provisions in public libraries rather

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than replacing them. The aim of this approach is to facilitate the operations of libraries and enhance the user experience. To account for the wide range of local and regional arrangements already in place the process of requesting material is centred around allowing the user to easily locate a required item. The request will be directed to the users library, which will then action it in the same way as if the user had requested the item in person. The librarian can use Cat Cymru to nd the same item, but it will be up to each library to source the item according to their usual procedures. In all instances, interlibrary loan requests may be subject to local charges and restrictions on circulation. However this umbrella approach provides Welsh library users with a unied access point for requesting material, which may not be held by their home library. The RDDW group (now part of the Online Services subgroup which reports back to the main Libraries for Life Advisory Group) is also actively investigating the potential to full user requests electronically. This is part of the groups remit to investigate new and efcient ways of resource discovery and delivery. While the nationally procured electronic resources already available may answer many requirements in terms of reference material, there is also a burgeoning electronic delivery market providing e-books and periodicals, as well as the possibilities of digitisation on demand. 6. Evaluation Internal evaluation is an ongoing process for CyMAL programmes, and all grant recipients submit end-of-year project reports which are assessed, as well as projects being monitored through meetings or visits. The projects under discussion here are also internally evaluated by sector representatives through the project board and through the National Library of Wales own project management processes. All the strands of Libraries for Life are also overseen by a Libraries for Life Advisory Group which meets six times a year and which has representatives from the library sectors in Wales and other relevant bodies. These integrated electronic library developments link not only to each other, but also to the other work strands of Libraries for Life. The evaluation of their individual success, as well as the impact of the whole programme, will be carefully analysed and researched through an in-depth evaluation exercise. The evaluation of the previous strategy @ your library found that the four work strands of that programme were a good match for the needs of the library sector in Wales. The evaluation of Libraries for Life will also examine the relevance of the work strands, as well as assessing their success and, importantly, the impact the programme has had on the lives of people in Wales. The online services outlined in this paper will be evaluated using a range of approaches and methodologies in order to assess their effectiveness and usefulness. Findings from the evaluation (which will be undertaken during and after the programme) will be essential to help inform future library strategy in Wales. Conclusion The success thus far of all three parts of the Online Services strand is a reection of the need within the Welsh library sector to make increasingly efcient use of resources and services while ensuring that they are clearly explained to the public. The lessons learnt

from previous programmes have shown that the provision of effective national level services is dependent on local library engagement across the country. The work outlined in this paper has also involved close collaboration with the other Libraries for Life strands, most particularly Strand 3 with the Regional Development Ofcers and Strand 4, the national marketing programme. Libraries for Life, and the associated online services developments, are a work in progress. They are continually adapted to match the current needs of libraries and library users in Wales, and to take advantage of the latest technology. Key elements of the whole programme, such as improved partnerships and efciency savings, are not only benecial to libraries in Wales, but build on previous good practice. They are also linked closely to various government strategies such as Making the connections delivering beyond boundaries (Welsh Assembly Government, 2006), and One Wales: a progressive agenda for the government of Wales (Welsh Assembly Government, 2008). Future developments depend not only on the success and merits of current activities, but also on political visions and will, and the needs of the citizens of Wales and the continued dynamism of the Welsh library sector to challenge itself to deliver an ever-expanding range of sophisticated services that meet, and indeed exceed, user expectations.

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References Betts, A. (2003), The gateway to Wales on the web, New Review of Information Networking, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 96-100. Detraz, M.-P. (2005), Resource Discovery in Wales Project: Blueprint for an All-Wales System of Resource Discovery Final Report, CyMAL, Aberystwyth. Dutton, W.H., di Gennaro, C. and Millwood Hargrave, A. (2005), Oxford Internet Survey 2005 Report: The Internet in Britain, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, available at: www.oii.ox. ac.uk/research/oxis/oxis2005_report.pdf Foster Evans, M. and Thomas, S. (2007), Implementation of an integrated information management system at the National Library of Wales, Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 325-37. Resource Discovery and Delivery Wales Working Group (2007), Resource Discovery and Delivery Wales: Report and Recommendations of a Working Group Convened by the National Library of Wales, CyMAL, Aberystwyth, available at: http://wales.gov.uk/depc/research/ 2463269/2463275/resourcediscovery/Resource_Discovery_and_Deli2.pdf?lang en Simon, A. and Horton, S. (2007), Evaluation of @ Your Library: An Initial Strategic Development Programme 2005-2007, CyMAL, Aberystwyth, available at: http://new.wales.gov.uk/depc/ research/2463269/2463275/atyourlibrary/__your_library_evaluation_r1pdf?lang en Welsh Assembly Government (2006), Making the Connections Delivering Beyond Boundaries, Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff. Welsh Assembly Government (2008), Libraries for Life: Delivering a Modern Library Service for Wales 2008-2011, Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff, available at: http://new.wales. gov.uk/depc/publications/cultureandsport/mal/museum1/librariesforlife/librarieslife english.pdf?lang en Wisniewski, J. (2007), Build it (and customize and market it) and they will come, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 12 Nos 3/4, pp. 341-55.

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Further reading Beecham, J. (2006), Beyond Boundaries: Citizen-Centred Local Services for Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff, available at: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/improving services/newsevents/publications/beyondboundaries/?lang en Welsh Assembly Government (2007), One Wales: A Progressive Agenda for the Government of Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff, available at: http://wales.gov.uk/about/ strategy/publications/onewales/?lang en Corresponding author Paul Bevan can be contacted at: paul.bevan@llgc.org.uk

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