Home | Multimedia digital service delivery (Summary)
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SUMMARY

SCOPE
This guideline covers the delivery of services by libraries which involve multimedia digital resources.

POLICY ISSUES
EU and national government policies increasingly provide a strong context for libraries to get to grips with digitisation and multimedia services.

Policy makers and managers of public libraries across Europe need to assess the extent to which they are in the business of providing multimedia services which are partly or wholly delivered electronically to the home and develop strategies accordingly.

The challenge for libraries is how to integrate new formats into the traditional library service model where they do not involve physical items and so, for example, do not fit into existing acquisition or circulation model. Staff will require additional training and new resource management models will need to be developed.

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES
Areas in which good practice issues are merging include:

• Internet resources and their use;

• e-books and e-serials and the software used for them;

• streaming video;

• video-conferencing;

• geographic information systems/

FUTURE AGENDA
e-books etc and other electronic resources will be fully integrated into library use and will become easier for the public to use and for libraries to control.

Public libraries may find that increasingly their users are no longer visiting service points or interacting with staff. A large percentage of borrowing services may become automated and take place through the catalogue only. Like banks, libraries may find that such automation brings a need for rationalisation and re-engineering.
 

Home | Multimedia digital service delivery (Summary)
Full Text: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4