Brett Wilson joined the EBSCO Australia team as Vice President of Sales in April 2020, during the midst of the pandemic. Before EBSCO, Brett managed learning content and software sales, as well as IT-managed services, primarily in the education sector. He also has experience working across the government, health and corporate verticals. Bringing a wealth of industry knowledge, Brett shares trends and tips for librarians looking to adapt to the digital landscape.
What trends have you seen over the last 12 months?
It comes as no surprise that libraries have seen a huge amount of change, the key ones being strained budgets, more pressure on staff and resources, and the need to adapt to an increasing demand for remote resources.
We work with thousands of libraries across the academic, school, health, government and corporate sectors. With our broad reach of relationships, we gain valuable insights on the unique challenges faced by each. Although the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) regions have adapted appropriately to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not insulated from its impact. The reduction of international students has a profound effect on the academic sector in Australia and New Zealand, lockdowns impact business confidence in corporate, and budget priorities are starting shift to frontline care in the health sector. Our library partners are adapting to these conditions and striving to maintain the maximum access to content for their users, while managing constraints and uncertainties.
Libraries have been online for years but the pandemic meant online resources became essential resources for library staff and users alike. Librarians are now looking for ongoing, permanent solutions for a hybrid mix of users with a higher proportion of remote usage than seen before — placing a greater priority on creating the same positive library user experience. A proactive shift to digital over the last few years, relative to the rest of the world, has helped ANZ librarians to be more agile in adapting to changing user requirements, particularly for increased remote access to resources. E-books are another good example. Prior to lockdown, e-books were already well-adopted by libraries in Australia and New Zealand, which ended up helping academic institutions that had to move their classes online almost instantly.
In response to this shift, librarians are simplifying access to resources with better user interfaces, integration across platforms and a single sign-on experience. EBSCO is working with academic and school libraries to integrate digital resources directly into student portals and learning management systems (LMS). We have seen some great examples of libraries becoming more integrated with the faculty and course planning. In medical libraries, librarians are looking to integrate electronic health records and state networks.
We are also seeing an increased need for intelligent integrated systems to assist with productivity and maximise budget spend. There is increased interest in e-book acquisition models and subscription management workflows. Ultimately, libraries seek to save time and reduce costs by avoiding duplication. A key factor in an intelligent system is the ability to leverage data and apply robust analytics. These analytics were initially applied solely to purchasing decisions. Now analytics have expanded to help library staff discover insights on where and how users are accessing resources.
What has EBSCO been doing to help?
There were a few things we did during 2020. EBSCO created a COVID-19 resources page, where EBSCO and our partners are providing free resources and expanded access to content. We had the annual EBSCO Solar grant program that funds solar installations at libraries — which we were very happy to see in 2020 one of the grants was received locally to Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji. Additionally, each year we make EBSCO’s Serials Price Projections Report freely available, which gives insights into expected publisher pricing changes for the coming twelve months.
However, I think the best support has been EBSCO’s team. We have a highly experienced local team that partners with libraries including account managers, collection development consultants, solution architects, customer training specialists, technical support experts and others.
EBSCO works to remain vendor neutral to build the "right fit" for our library partners. We do this by providing insights for libraries to reshape content acquisition strategies for a radically changing landscape — by running collection analysis reports to identify resources that would best complement the libraries existing collection and make the most out of the budget spend. Another way we are helping is by consulting with libraries that are looking to build software solutions that create improved user experiences while also improving administrative workflows. EBSCO’s Professional Services team works with libraries to identify which tools are suited to meeting the challenges libraries face today.
EBSCO has conducted more training and support services in the last year than ever before, underlining our commitment to assist library partners in navigating the changing environment.
Where to for the future?
Nobody knows what 2021 will bring, but I am excited about what we are working on. We are partnering with libraries including the University of Denver, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Chalmers University of Technology to develop a next-generation analytics platform. The aim is to improve workflow processes for libraries that lack access to robust analytics tools. New EBSCO Discovery Service™ enhancements are currently in beta testing with institutes around the world, including here in Australia. We have spent a lot of time enhancing the EDS Knowledge Graph, mapping new datasets and we have provided an even better user experience with personalised dashboards, folders and sharing options. We are actively involved in the FOLIO community, the open-source ILS, with several FOLIO implementations around the world. I’m excited to see the momentum continue to build in Oceania and beyond.
