Market :: Libraries

How do you help your patrons search the "Deep Web" of health-related databases? There are massive amounts of high-quality health-related information available through scientific and academic databases that are not currently reachable through traditional search engines.

These data sources include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), Dood and Drug Administration ("FDA"), National Library of Medicine ("NLM") and other agencies both in the US and abroad (i.e. databases from health-related agencies in both Spain and the UK, for example).

HealthLibrarian has already downloaded and processed many of those databases. And the knowledge is available to both consumers and providers, in many cases for the first time ever.

Facing Tight Acquisition Budgets

During these challenging economic times of shrinking budgets and limited resources, libraries are being forced to re-evaluate how many subscription fees can they afford to pay to commercial publishers and database providers. HealthLibrarian's capabilities can replace some of those services, at a reduced cost. See below.

Medical librarians Medline can be overwhelming, and there are so many different sites that present very narrow types of information (clinical trials info here; drug info there; medical device details over there). Medical librarians work in patient education committees: develop content coming out of health system Point to proper content.

Unified Discovery Service for Open Access & Open Data Bio-medical Knowledge

Libraries across the US face significant budget reductions, forcing library administrators to reduce their acquisition budget for commercial journal and scientific subscriptions. This directly impacts patrons.
If your library's position is "We need access to ABC Journal from XYZ Publisher" then your budget needs to accommodate that need. But you could re-frame the question to "We need to provide our patrons with access to peer-reviewed journals in the same subject area as ABC Journal from XYZ Publishing." Then HealthLibrarian's Open Access offerings can give your library a realistic solution at lower cost.
HealthLibrarian can help your library to address this challenge through our one-stop shop discovery interface that helps users to locate pre-processed, indexed bio-medical materials, electronic journal articles, books and multimedia resources. All within a single integrated results list.
We have already indexed over a dozen Open Data bio-medical sources from the Spanish, UK and US governments. And we are downloading and pre-indexing dozens of peer-reviewed bio-medical Open Access journals. These journals and government sources can provide your library with access to materials in the same subject access as commercial journals from Toll Access publishers.
HealthLibrarian sidesteps the problems inherent in federated search by physically storing, indexing, and retrieving information from our own digital repository. All of the content accessible via HealthLibrarian is pre-indexed and allows users to quickly search, discover and access reliable and credible content.

>> We solve problems
>> Integrating into coursework
Points to articulate in letter:
* we follow the library-fiendly CDL licensing model
* 02 months free trial in exchange for feedback
* we present a cost-effective option during these times of budgetary constraints
* beyond offering access to databases, HL allows users to extract actionable knowledge from our system
* we add value to data: cross-index,
* the annual licensing fee will remain constant even as we increase the number of data sources
Why working with us?
* new source for patrons
* being on the ground floor of a new service
* we give you the opportunity to design a new system: very few vendors ask for your opinion
* we give you choices! basic vs. advanced UI
* As a small company, we're flexible and nimble.
* Tell us what you need, and we'll build it for you within your budget.

>> Jungle, pathways: Librarians opening paths through the jungle of knowledge and information. A few images to help you make the point visually: a.) The masses of information available out there are equivalent to a virtual "jungle of knowledge": the information you need is out there, you just need to find it. {jungle.jpg} b.) Librarians are experts at wielding their machetes (experience) and tracking skills (professional training) to identify where the information you needs is located at. {jungle_machete.jpg} c.) Our librarians go one step beyond: they clear pathways for you leading to the best spots, based on what you are interested in. {jungle_path.jpg} HealthLibrarian for libraries: HealthLibrarian Flyer for Libraries Presentation to librarians HealthLibrarian flyer

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries at comprehensive, research-extensive institutions in the US and Canada that share similar research missions, aspirations, and achievements. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace. In 2007, ARL members reported a median expenditure of $9,600,793 for library materials ($1,219,796,179 in total), a median expenditure for serials of $6,587, 241 ($820,955,367 in total), and a median expenditure of $4,661,123 for electronic resources ($536,033,744 total). "..a median expenditure of $4,661,123 for electronic resources ($536,033,744 total)."

Just these 123 universities spent US$536 _Million_ in electronic resources in 01 year. This is an enormous market. And they are all clamoring for publishers to lower their (stratospheric) annual subscription fees. www.arl.org/bm~doc/economic-statement-2009.pdf

Libraries purchase access to specific resources (print and/or electronic) based on the need to use such resource in a particular academic program.

For example, FAU (Florida Atlantic University) in Palm Beach county, FL uses the following resources in their "Biomed" program [FAU_List_biomed.pdf]. And these resources [FAU_list_nursing.pdf] in their "Nursing" program. http://www.OpenPHI.com/files/FAU_List_biomed.pdf http://www.OpenPHI.com/files/FAU_list_davie_nursing.pdf http://www.OpenPHI.com/files/FAU_list_nursing.pdf

Given budgetary constraints, _all_ libraries in the US are looking at reducing their licensing costs.

Thus far, one of libraries' few options to adjusting to this long-term reality of reduced funding is to reduce or eliminate access to some of those data sources.

What my company offers is the ability to _replace_ commercial content with Open Access content. [Open Access defined as high-quality, peer-reviewed journals where the entire content of the publication is available at no cost.]

Thus, if FAU is currently paying US$826.40 per year to access "AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY", my company can offer them access to over 10 Open Access journals in the topic of "psychology" as part of the base HealthLibrarian licensing fee. See attached [Open_Access_Psychology.txt]

In addition to replacing most commercial publishers' offerings with Open Access equivalents, my company's offering is unique in that I offer libraries: * databases from the FDA and CMS that are not otherwise available * data from Spain's and UK's government departments * all integrated under a single Controlled Medical Vocabulary

Community Libraries

9,080 public libraries • Annual Collection Exp. $1.25 B in 2009 • High % for electronic access to databases • People served: 291M • Materials Expenditure Per capita: $4.32

Academic Libraries

23,000 high schools 1,173 comm. colleges 3,500 04-yr. Colleges 131 medical schools (US); 17 in Canada • 25 colleges of osteopathic medicine