FinSMUG Report to S-NUG Meeting, Brno, 2nd September 2007
FinSMUG = Nelli consortium (= all libraries funded by the Ministry of Education); Nelli is the name of the Finnish MetaLib/SFX portal
First FinSMUG seminar in Oulu. FinSMUG is a part of Triangle (Library systems, Information retrieval portal, and Digital object repositories). Three-day Triangle seminars are held annually, and FinSMUG is a one-day seminar within Triangle.
The Nelli consortium consists of:
Universities: 20
Libraries of universities of applied sciences (polytechnics): 28
Public libraries (Regional public libraries): 19
Recent topical issues:
Structural changes in municipalities, mainly by merging them; in 2007 there were 416 municipalities, and a rough guess is that in 10 years it could be half of what it is now. So far we have five main library systems: Voyager (for all university and university of applied sciences libraries), Aleph (to replace the university UC), Millennium, Libra III and PallasPro (Axiell), and Origo (ATP, a Finnish library system provider) for public libraries.
Structural changes will take place also in university of applied sciences and university libraries; the goal is to cut to half the number of university and university of applied sciences libraries in five years. Incorporation will follow different models: by merging and by making confederations of these educational institutes.
Technical background of Nelli (National Electronic Library Interface)
The maintenance of the portal software for libraries is centralised in the Nelli office.
The Nelli office takes care of the common problems and enhance requests that concern all libraries.
Because it is centrally funded by the Ministry of Education, the Nelli office of NL of Finland has been the main partner in cooperation with Ex Libris in Finland.
We have one server for all MetaLib/SFX libraries, and in the autumn a new server will be installed for all the e-services of the National Library of Finland, i.e., Nelli, Linnea (University consortium), Amkit (Polytechnic consortium) as well as Shibboleth.
All libraries have been using MetaLib 4 since spring 2007.
Service agreements with the libraries define the portal maintenance tasks for both the Nelli office and the libraries.
SFX/MetaLib libraries in Finland
Constant growth in usage: about one million searches per month (spring 2007); estimated to grow to 1.5 million searches per month next autumn; concurrent users: top 500, daytime average 200
In production: 90% of all libraries (probably 100% in 2008; implementation began in 2004)
Universities: 19/20; all 20 at the end of 2007
Libraries of universities of applied sciences (polytechnics): 25/28
Public libraries (regional public libraries): 16/19
EZProxy: 3 university and 3 university of applied sciences libraries (for now)
Shibboleth: usage is growing
Universities: 10/20 libraries
Polytechnic libraries: 4/28
Public libraries (regional public libraries): none, but instead an in-house authorisation and authentication solution
Meetings in 2007
Annual Triangle three-day seminar on 22-24 May. The seminar is organised by the NL of Finland together with participant libraries from three library sectors. Guests in 2007 were, e.g., Marc Daubach, Julie Booth, Robert Blay from Ex Libris, Örjan Hellström from Göteborg, Sweden and Richard Wallis from Talis. We also had different sessions for discussions for univ./UASs and public libraries.
The main subjects discussed in FinSMUG were:
Web 2.0 and Library 2.0
User guidance for students in university and university of applied sciences libraries
Statistics
Remote usage of e-resources in public libraries
The role of MetaLib/SFX in public libraries
Usability issues
Loading e-journals from SFX to the library database
Workflow of adding and using e-thesis within the DSpace, MetaLib/SFX and Voyager environments (a case from a university of applied sciences library)
In addition, we had four to five cooperation meetings during the year in each library sector where libraries could raise topical matters and concerns.
Training: the Nelli office trained mainly those who needed further assistance in implementation or in tailoring their portals. The basic implementation tuition has already been given to all libraries. Training was also given via the web (OpenVPN/Skype).
Progress?
Technical functionality improved: learning environments (e.g., Moodle, WebCT etc.) with Nelli. University teacher-focused marketing
MetaLib resources possible to implement in browser's search box
Developing RSS feeds for MetaLib
Building a Wiki platform as a help for Finnish libraries to address mainly technical MetaLib/SFX issues (with Confluence software)
Information shared with libraries also via the Halti database (licensing information, SFX/MetaLib inform.). There will be a presentation of Halti in IGeLU, Prague.
Using MetaLib also for a virtual UC for public libraries (by quicksets/Resource category, 20/21 resources in one set)
Active resources in all instances: 12,223 (some examples: Helsinki university: 465, Turku university: 554, Vaasa polytechnic 288, Kuopio regional library 227)
