Electronic Collections Development : Strategic Choices and Pragmatic Decisions at the Medical University Library Lausanne

Author: Isabelle de Kaenel,  The Medical University Library Lausanne, Switzerland

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Abstract

Many questions remain unanswered concerning the electronic publications : mainly the issues dealing with pricing, licencing and archiving. Some earlier strong beliefs have lately been shattered : library consortiums have shown limits, the benefits of packages are questionned. In this context it is a real challenge to make strategic choices on how e-collections and e-services should expand in a library. However in a medical library the expectations of the physicians put a strong pressure on the librarians and drive them to improve and to extend the accesses to the electronic resources. At the medical University Library in Lausanne, a rather pragmatic approach has been taken to promote and integrate the electronic collections in a perpetual quest for performance and innovation.

About the author

Head Librarian of the Medical University library Lausanne (CH) since 1995, my principal responsibilities include the general management of the library with a strong emphasis on the development of electronic resources (web databases, e-journals). I am also a chairman of the commission for the coordination of electronic information resources on the Lausanne university campus. Before that I was a Reference Librarian at the Institute for Management Development (Lausanne , Switzerland) and then a full-time lecturer for 4 years at the school of librarianship (Geneva, Switzerland), lecturing on Internet, electronic information resources and online searching. My educational background include a MA in Comparative Literature at Lyon University and an M.Sc. in Information Science at Institut National des Techniques Documentaires, Paris.