UKSG 2018 Breakout - Facts and fairy tales - merging institutions - Christensen and Moltke
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The two largest university libraries in Denmark merged on 1 January 2017. Strategic and political reasons were behind this decision but this talk will take a staff viewpoint. The focal point will be the challenges of licences: which resources do we have in common, where do we differ, which deals do we renegotiate and which do we cancel? Besides this, the session will also touch upon other analyses of current systems and the challenge of merging different institutional cultures. Vibeke Christensen and Inge-Berete Moltke, Royal Danish Library
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UKSG 2018 Breakout - Facts and fairy tales - merging institutions - Christensen and Moltke
- 1. Facts and fairy tales The challenges of merging institutions from a staff viewpoint Inge-Berete Moltke, License manager, Copenhagen Vibeke Christensen, License manager, Aarhus UKSG Conference, SEC, Glasgow April 2018
- 2. Facts and fairy tales The merger The old institutions Copenhagen and Roskilde – analysis and results Copenhagen and Aarhus – analysis and … Enter Aalborg Who are we now? Projects New library services platform Staff policy and culture Lessons learnt so far April 2018
- 3. Facts and fairy tales April 2018 “In future the Danish public will have one consolidated entry to digitized newspapers, radio and TV programs, Hans Christian Andersen’s original manuscripts and Søren Kierkegaard’s love letters and the preservation of the cultural heritage is strengthened by joining forces. At the same time the merger of the State and University Library and the Royal Library future-proofs the services provided for the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University at the highest possible level and it is an obvious consequence of the extensive digitization that has characterized the research library landscape for the past decade.”
- 4. Facts and fairy tales Statsbiblioteket – State and University Library – was founded in 1902 and moved to the existing building in 1963 Legal deposit University library for Aarhus University Special services to the Danish public libraries Around 200 employees at the time of the merger April 2018
- 5. April 2018
- 6. Facts and Fairy Tales Det Kongelige Bibliotek - The Royal Library - the king’s private library - opened as a library for researchers and students in 1793 Legal deposit University Library for the University of Copenhagen Preservation of cultural heritage and exhibitions Approx. 400 employees at the time of the merger April 2018
- 7. Facts and fairy tales The rapid changing of the university library landscape: Part 1 Copenhagen and Roskilde – analysis and results. Cooperation agreement between the Royal Library/Copenhagen University Library and Roskilde University as of January 2017 Success Criterion Roskilde University : approx. 155 license agreements Copenhagen University : approx. 620 license agreements April 2018
- 8. Facts and Fairy Tales Overview Relation to publishers Results: ― The user perspective ― The RUL staff point of view ― The CUL staff point of view April 2018 30. nov.2016 Provider Status 1.meeting : Access for RUL via XXX. OR YYY CUL/RUL, RUL or CUL Via Product Plat- form Negotiation: proposal resp.: License Contract Curr. RUL: Price currency 2016 RUL: Price DKK 2016 RUL: usage RUL: price pr DL RL/CUL Price 2016 currency RL/CUL Price 2016 DKK RL/CUL: usage RL/CUL: price pr DL Notes on License
- 9. Facts and fairy tales Copenhagen and Aarhus – analysis and … Copenhagen – Roskilde transfer and consolidation – november / december 2016 Copenhagen – Aarhus analysis of deals outside the national consortia – november 2016 / january 2017 Copenhagen – Aarhus analysis of DEFF deals – february / mid-april 2017 Proposed negotiation strategy to be presented to the board of directors – april 2017 April 2018
- 10. April 2018 Responsible KB Original currency KB Usage 2015 KB Vendor KB Responsible SB Original currency SB Usage 2015 SB Vendor SB Title KB Price original currency 2016 KB PPD 2015 KB Publisher / aggregator platform KB Title SB Price original currency 2016 SB PPD 2015 SB URL KB Title Price DKK 2016 KB Usage 2016 KB Publisher / aggregator platform SB Type KB Price DKK 2016 SB Usage 2016 SB URL SB Type SB Price original currency 2017 KB PPD 2016 KB Purchased backfiles KB Overlap? Price original currency 2017 SB PPD 2016 SB Purchased backfiles SB Note KB Price DKK 2017 KB Tier KB RA-coder KB Note SB Price DKK 2017 SB Tier SB
- 11. Facts and fairy tales 758 resources ranging from single titles to big deals, databases, ebook packages etc. 164 total overlap 448 no overlap 146 partial overlap PDA and EBA arrangements were not part of this analysis April 2018
- 12. Facts and fairy tales Enter Aalborg University … In December 2017 Aalborg University and Royal Danish Library signed a cooperation agreement focusing on the areas of licensing and the library services platform Framework agreement that allows other topics to be included April 2018
- 13. Facts and fairy tales Where are we now? 2 university libraries & 2 cooperation agreements with Roskilde and Aalborg ULs Department of License Management Challenges April 2018
- 14. Facts and fairy tales April 2018 Infrastructure Services Process License Management Shared Services Health Science & Technology Aarhus BSS Arts, Aarhus Arts, Emdrup Digital Cultural Heritage Newspaper and Media Collection Digitization Special Collections Danish National Art Library and Reading Rooms Legal Deposit Preservation Cultural Activities IT Development IT Infrastructure Finance Department HR Purchasing, Operations and Logistics Building Services Security Information Resources Copenhagen University Library Frederiksberg / Copenhagen University Library Nord Copenhagen University Library Søndre Campus Copenhagen University Library Faculty Library of Social Sciences University of Copenhagen Faculty Library of Theology Roskilde University Library Chief Executive Svend Larsen Communication National Loan Centre Erik Hofmeister Aarhus University Library Per Lindblad Johansen Copenhagen University Library Kira Stine Hansen Digital Cultural Heritage and Media Tonny Skovgård Jensen National Library Pernille Drost IT Development and Infrastructure Bjarne Søgaard Andersen Administration Mette Mejlvang
- 15. Facts and fairy tales Workshop January 2018 in the Copenhagen area where we presented a number of initiatives (19!) Among others: E-books Agents Processes and workflows Statistics Documentation Negotiations Communication April 2018
- 16. Facts and fairy tales Workshop March 2018 in Aarhus Focus on joint negotiations as a project – pre-mortem exercise! Focus on collaborating with Aalborg Open space session that ended up turning it all upside down April 2018
- 17. Facts and fairy tales The result of turning it all upside down: April 2018
- 18. Facts and fairy tales April 2018
- 19. Facts and fairy tales April 2018
- 20. Facts and fairy tales Two different versions of aleph Two different discovery layers Two different article indexes Two different link resolvers An ERMS in Aarhus, none in Copenhagen Any number of homegrown ”fixes” April 2018
- 21. Facts and fairy tales Changing of policies Changing of roles April 2018
- 22. Facts and fairy tales The balancing act Lessons learnt so far ― A merger takes time ― Be realistic ― Be open-minded and specific We are working on it! April 2018
- 23. Facts and fairy tales So how will this fairy tale end? April 2018
Editor's Notes
- Vibeke, employed at the library for 20+ years, been involved with e-resources since the early start, also involved with library infrastructure Inge-Berete, involved in license management for 8 years
- During this presentation we will touch upon: You might ask what is the angle of our talk: it’s the practical one – the merger(s) seen from the desk of two employees
- Press release on September 9, 2016 announcing the merger Focusing on two areas: preservation of cultural heritage and services provided for the two universities in Copenhagen and Aarhus Political decision in the Minstry of Culture, the director of The Royal Library in Copenhagen wanted to retire which might have speeded up the proces You might wonder why it is the ministry of culture rather than the ministry of education but the two institutions have always belonged under the Ministry of Culture due to the obligations concerning cultural heritage and legal deposit as opposed to other university libraries and the universities that we serve. A fact that does not exactly make things easier. Some people in the Danish library landscape said that the merger had been coming for years but I personally had NOT seen it coming and I do not think that any of my colleagues had either
- So, once upon a time … At the beginning focusing on legal deposit and supplementing The Royal Library in Copenhagen (a copy in Aarhus and a copy in Copenhagen of any item published in Denmark), special responsibility for collecting and preserving radio and TV, Danish domains on the internet in cooperation with The Royal Library (there is a history of both cooperation and competition between us Later on university library for Aarhus University and we provide special services for the public libraries – very different from Copenhagen, still lots of transactions with physical books and article copies. We cannot be as firm on e-only policies as Copenhagen Quite innovative web department, discovery layer is homegrown
- Showing off our new library garden
- Det Kongelige Bibliotek - The Royal Library was founded as the king’s private library in the 1660s and as such inaccessible for the public; it opened as a library for researchers and students in 1793 Black Diamond in 1999, the ”old” building on the other side of the Diamond is from 1906 – plus several library buildings in Copenhagen. National Library focusing on legal deposit and extending collections within manuscripts, musical notes quite extensive research into the library collections and as a university library supporting research and teaching at the UoC. Collection and preservation of the national cultural heritage of Danish and of foreign origin books, journals, newspapers, archives, manuscripts, musical notes, maps, drawings, photos and booklets in analogue as well as digital format. As a museological and cultural institution the library disseminates knowledge and experiences based on the collections and the library mission. From the closed academic library to a more openminded - which is evident in the architecture. Approx. 400 employees/full time equivalents at the time of the merger E-only strategy since 2012 ExLibris Aleph discovery system Primo
- The rapid changing of the university library landscape: Part 1 Copenhagen and Roskilde – analysis and results. It all started in Oct. 2016 with the announcement of the cooperation agreement between the Royal Library/Copenhagen University Library and Roskilde University as of January 2017. On its own initiative the RUL approached CUL to discuss possibilities of cooperation – however, let’s be honest! - first of all the decision was part of a solution to the announced budget cuts and an ongoing discussion among the university directors of possible advantages of large scale operations. Important: Success Criterion: By January 2017 The Royal Library/Copenhagen University Library staff and systems will manage and deliver all electronic resources to Roskilde University users. CUL will negotiate and enter electronic resource license agreements on behalf of Roskilde University. As part of the agreement Roskilde University library systems services merge with the common Royal Library/Copenhagen University Library systems Platform. By January 2017 The Royal Library/Copenhagen University Library staff and systems will manage and deliver all electronic resources to Roskilde University users. SO JUST FIX IT – in a sense the job was easy as it had a well defined criterion of success, the relevant cut faces of all the jobs connected with this project were clear and the Roskilde staff was well informed – it was just hard work on both sides. What kind of institution RUL: FTE: 6.227 CUL 34.205 Budget: 10 mio DKK / 65 mio DKK Teaching univ/ research univ. more or less the same subjects taught at both universities, however the teaching methods at Roskilde are interdisciplinary and with group projects Roskilde University : approx. 155 license agreements Copenhagen University : approx. 620 license agreements
- Internally: To get an overview: the design of roadmaps surveys/analyses of the RUL portfolio placed together with the CUL portfolio. No matter whether the licenses agreements were consortia or non-consortia deals: the same kind of information was needed: which licenses did overlap/partly overlap and which ones were unique. Spreadsheets with 18 columns the design of roadmaps surveys/analyses of the RUL portfolio: compare with the CUL portfolio: which licenses did we have in common exactly in common? Perhaps CUL had backfiles that RUL didn’t have, maybe RUL had access via another platform, what was the RUL price, price per DL and usage of each resource compared to the CUL price, price per DL and usage? Achievements/results of the overview: The easy part: What resources were “unique” i.e. what resources didn’t we share. We decided that CUL and RUL unique resources were to stay unique and access was set up separately. Another easy part: same resources, same platform: no problem To set up access to resources from the same publisher/provider with complete overlap this just involved the accept of the publisher The more complicated part was access to the resources we partly shared A) either different resources on the same platform (1+2) First: Partly overlap: Would the publisher be able to limit access for RUL to its resources simultaneously preventing RUL from accessing CUL resources – we couldn’t! – and the publishers weren’t able as well. So surplus payment to get RUL access the CUL resources – or vice versa OR cancellation of RUL access as the RUL usage didn’t match the price asked for by the publisher The solution to A) was negotiation of a brief or sometimes lengthy duration on the price for access to the resources the other library didn’t have fx. only CUL had purchased backfiles, or CUL just subscribed to more products – mostly it was a question of a RUL surplus payment, in certain cases it was a matter of a CUL surplus payment. And sometimes RUL got access for a very small amount of money because the resource in question was of no relevance to as no research was done within the area or future usage was foreseen to be very low. And in a few cases it meant a cancellation of RUL access as the RUL usage didn’t match the price asked for by the publisher. Troublesome was the issue with same resources on different platforms: The solution was a puzzle on several sheets in A3 format because it turned out the solution involved a comparison of portfolios from several of the big aggregators, could we swap some? Could we cancel some? Use of agent remained unchanged Use of agent: We didn’t use the same agent and we decided to keep it that way – to transfer to one agent meant too much work and why place all your eggs in one basket? Externally: A matter of importance The relation to the publishers: Letter of authorization from RU management via CUL to all RUL and CUL contacts explaining new set-up and later on the removal of RUL IP ranges and replacement with CUL proxy. A point of specific attention was to explain the remaining of two legal entities as the two universities did not merge only the libraries/library systems/library services Results: The user perspective: Users at RU now have access to an expanded/extended portfolio of e-resources – but via a different library system RUL staff point of view: from being “your own university library” you were now one of 4 faculty libraries within a huge UL with new leadership, a different library system and new procedures and all back office services moved to Copenhagen and the necessary acknowledgement of loss fx loss of all acquisition data with the pros&cons of being in a huge organization absorption The CUL staff point of view: we fixed RUL access via the RL/CUL library system within the time limit and no extra staff resources– but many tasks which were/are not of the utmost relevance have fallen behind – still unsolved
- Press release on September 9 Two weeks after the announcement of the ”big” merger, Roskilde signed a cooperation agreement with the Royal Library which is why they are mentioned in the headlines of this project plan from 24.10.16 terms of reference for electronic resources analysis Copenhagen – Roskilde already covered by Inge-Berete – a very impressive tour de force by our colleagues Two physical meetings and a lot of email exchanges We ended up not distinguishing between consortia and non-consortia deals
- We set out to create the same sort of overview as Inge-Berete has just described Huge shared spreadsheet in shared folder – not recommendable 39 columns and 747 rows that I could not possibly squeeze into a slide so these are just the headlines Typically identical columns for each institution apart from ”Title” which is the title that we agreed on going forward Overlap? Which could be either KB, SB, partial og yes RA codes, which indicates differentiated access in Copenhagen Data came from many sources and collecting it was a lot of work. At the same time Copenhagen was still busy sorting out Roskilde
- Resources labelled partial overlap could be a single title in one institution that we knew to be a part of a package held by the other institution, different number of concurrent users, slightly different title lists in big deals and a few other things that Inge-Berete has already mentioned. A report was delivered with a slight delay in mid-May and then we waited as the strategic decisions were to be taken at a more senior level On june 1, it was decided to form a new joint department for license management with staff from both Aarhus and Copenhagen and a head of department from outside either institution. The process of hiring the head of department was postponed till after the summer period and he ended up starting on December 1. All this meant that 2018 renewals were negotiated separately as the strategic decisions awaited the establishment of the new department This is one example of facts and fairy tales clashing. Management (and the ministry!) starts at the helicopter perspective thinking (perhaps ): they are both big universities, they cover roughly the same subjects, there must be lots of overlap so just how difficult can this be?, then realises the complexity and changes the plan which is perfectly ok. You need staff to make reality checks
- We have to do the above exercise all over again which we should have anyway as a year has passed but with one more library! We will not be doing it in quite the same way, though – more on that a little later on Aarhus and Copenhagen were able to share all information because we merged but we have some confidentiality issues with Aalborg as we are still separate institutions We also have some very practical difficulties sharing documents etc So at the same time as we are still establishing cooperation between east and west, we are also incorporating a new partner One of our directors likes to say that we are laying out the tarmac as we are driving – quite a good picture! Sometimes it feels more like being run over by the road roller
- So who are we and where are we now? Two university libraries with two cooperation agreements with two other university libraries Roskilde and Aalborg each with their own budget and university characteristics – however, the license management is to be handled by the RDL – and the agreements are for a fixed term, they’ll end in 2020. So how does the license administration work then? Department of License Management is the answer to the question and as of December last year (after more than 18 months in uncertainty after the merger) the department was established. The solution has been to create a new “neutral” department, neutral in the sense that all license administration and management is implemented in the dept. while it has no acquisition budget of its own, the budgets and the mandate are still in the hands of/disposed of by the heads of the three university librarians respectively, which means all negotiation results are to be accepted or turned down by the university librarians. We do have challenges: Different workflows, no joint intranet, no joint extranet different budgets internally as well as in relation to the university We are 4 ft + two “halves” persons from CU, 4,5 ft from Aarhus, one leader, who also is the lead manager of two persons from Aalborg (he’s not the personnel manager), we’re situated in 3 different cities have common video meetings every two weeks, city-based meetings once a week “bilateral” video meetings whenever needed and our leader is Copenhagen based, but tries to spend a day in Aarhus each week, he exerts distance management and we are staff and colleagues at a distance Endeavour is the word as we do strive to make a joint effort: we are colleagues, not competitors in a united approach to find a way
- The changing of the landscape of the RDL: these are facts of last week as the leader of the Aarhus UL retired and is now replaced by EH, so what was formerly a very clear picture of the organisation has now become somewhat blurred
- To get started we had a workshop in January – very nice place just outside Copenhagen The new head of department had identified a number of initiatives that needed attention and we (the new department) presented the initiatives (two or three together from each side of the water) to each other and four colleagues from Aalborg Quite a heavy agenda and a lot of work preparing for it – plenty of video meetings – but a fruitful exercise and gave some food for thought Following the workshop the head of department prioritized the initiatives so that we ended up with 7 projects Each project was given one or more facilitators who were responsible for drafting a project plan prior to the next workshop in March The projects were: Statistics Processes and workflows Joint negotiations Archiving and documentation Cooperation with Aalborg DEFF (national consortia) negotiations Open access
- Once again lots of preparations with video meetings several times The facilitators were supposed to present the projects in some way that allowed us to discuss them The majority of us have never made a project plan before so we were introduced to this as well as a tool – trello – to support the process and communication within the projects Two projects were given special attention: The pre-mortem exercise (a sort of backward risk analysis). At the beginning of something new, management typically wants enthusiam and a positive attitude and scepticism is not that much appreciated but this exercise was quite a relief because you were meant to be negative (or realistic as one colleague said) and we identified a lot issues that needed attention going forward The facilitators of the collaboration project had a chance to give a more detailed presention and get feedback from the rest of the group During the final open space session (like a poster session) we realized that we could not handle 7 projects at the same time as there was a lot of overlap in content as well as participants. Three people volunteered to try to restructure the projects into one. At that time (the afternoon of day 2) it felt like throwing the whole thing up in the air and turning it upside down – quite overwhelming and just a little frustrating!
- So now it looks like this – we have three phases with the same elements – and the mapping phase includes the plans that we made previously so that all this work was not wasted but set in a new frame
- Below the headlines are tasks – this one shows tasks for mapping processes and workflows Other areas of administration are journalising and archiving, budgets and accounting practises Analysis includes statistics and management information Negotiation includes an analysis of which deals we will be negotiating for all universities (more in-depth analysis of fewer titles than the huge mapping of Aarhus and Copenhagen last year), setting up teams and targets, this may lead to several strategies instead of just one Communication covers any sort of communication with our users, colleagues, the universities, the publisher etc. The open access mandate in Denmark is green so open access in this respect is knowlegde of what is going on and sharing this knowledge within the institution as a whole Ongoing process of breaking a huge task into something manageable, lots of work – we still have our daily business to attend to as well but I think we have a feeling of finally doing something instead of talking about it
- Another urgent issue was the library systems and what was needed to support among other things the complicated setup of the electronic resources. Analysis of library systems was launched – terms of reference 01.10.16 The first phase was mapping the current systems. This is the Aarhus complex. The Copenhagen one looked equally horrible but with different elements
- In short we had … The group in charge of the analysis made a report in mid-January 2017 with 5 scenarios ranging from status quo to preparing a tender for a new library services platform The library directors felt that more analysis was needed and a new project was established with one group looking particularly at the infrastructure and another group looking at cataloguing formats – a new system would mean a shift to marc21 from a local Danish format and there were grave concerns of losing data in the migration process. Aalborg was included in the project group as negotiations were going on considering a cooperation agreement and they would be representative of any future partners. The work in the group included a visit to Bibsys in Norway and the university library in Oslo as libraries in Norway have recently moved to a joint library services platform and were very willing to share their experiences. This second project concluded that a tender for a new LSP was the only way forward, the directors agreed and preparations for a tender are now taking place. As with everything else in this merger, it takes time … always more than you expect but preparations need to be thorough
- Personnel policy Challenges: Merging at low cost – NO expenditures Uniting different working place cultures into one – at no cost Annual cuts of budgets However, the challenge for a successful merger and the building up of a joint frame of reference were the facts that personnel policy, wage policy, time recording, corporate culture: policies all differed between our two institutions and only now have rules and regulations been streamlined or redefined with new work committees new joint policies in most areas. Comfort zone attitude is to go on as you used to And now we come to the comfort zone: it’s been diminished! We have all experienced an uncertainty up until that point and you can be sure that much is not as it was before and you have to get adjusted to - it’s not necessarily because you do not sympathize, it’s just that going through any change is time consuming and you’re out of your comfort zone. Keeping employees in uncertainty is not cost effective, so we’re pleased that we at least now have joint policies on important policies Of course duplication of work has to be eliminated: Is my work/any type of work going to be just in Aarhus or Copenhagen? – we have been guaranteed that we as persons will not have to move, but the actual job will remain Changing of roles you were Aarhus, I was Copenhagen, we strive to know as much as we can about each other to be equally well prepared and disciplined opening our minds to extract the best of our work flows and practices to agree upon a “common best practice” So do we have the right qualifications in the department? The articulation and acceptance of new approaches to solving known and unknown issues
- The merger of Aarhus and Copenhagen differs from the Copenhagen Roskilde merger. First of all we have no clear success criterions and the strategy is only expressed in very broad terms, secondly and we and our colleagues in the License management department are first movers in the new organisation. On the other hand: this is the exitement of it all as we can play an active role in defining solutions, goals and criterions of success – it’s like an expedition into unexplored territories, just remember to look back and see if you lost somebody or something behind and accept failures and the occurance of derived issues The balancing act between generating economies of scale and safeguarding local initiatives and distinctive characteristics of each university – so we have to see whether big is really beautiful and smart …. or just greyish and slow Top-down style of management A merger takes time – and more time that you ever imagined to get the feeling that you are actually part of a new unified effort Be realistic – a new management board often has great visions and ideas, seldom clear defined goals and success criterions, and of course ideas are there to be realised. Don’t get too overwhelmed! We have found it useful and worthwhile to start breaking down the ideas into possible realistic pieces, which we try to keep in accordance with our resources. However, the distance between the ideas and a possible realistic solution might turn out to be unexpectedly great …, time will show Be open-minded and specific Be specific when you talk together: one word might easily mean different things and without a thorough understanding of the exact meaning of the word misunderstandings in implementing new procedures will easily occur you need to understand the context/workflow/challenges of your new colleague. Don’t underestimate work in setting up overviews in excel sheets so everybody can see the words/procedure and you can discuss more freely you make the discussion more neutral and limited from the person speaking BE AWARE - FEELINGS ARE AT STAKE! What about my work and the way I used to do it? Is she saying this because she wants “my work” – what is my work now? We work on it and we trust each other – we are optimistic
- Definitely NOT like The emperor’s new clothes Rather like The tinder box where the soldier cheats the witch out of her treasures and marries the princess Or the ugly duckling who turns into a beautiful swan Thank you very much for listening!