Ingenta's 6 in 2006: our year in library services
2006 was not only a strong year for Ingenta's publisher partnerships; it was also a year in which we consolidated our offering to you, our library customers, and endeavoured to provide a better level of support for your activities. This was reflected not only in our direct relationship with you but also in our involvement in, and leadership of, industry initiatives which we believe will benefit both our library customers and the broader information industry. Here we provide an overview of 6 major library-focussed activities we undertook during 2006:
Strengthening of our subscription activation program
Our pioneering subscription activation program, which enables subscription agents to activate subscriptions on behalf of our mutual library customers, gained new partners in 2006, bringing the total number of partners in the program to nine. Another new partner, Karger, has been added since the start of 2007, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to simplifying the online set up process for our library customers through co-operative relationships with others in the serials supply chain.
Creation of Resource Zone for library administrators
Following feedback from our library customers, we created the Resource Zone area of IngentaConnect, a central repository for support and marketing information ranging from user guides and key issue analysis to downloadable logos and posters. The new site met with success and continues to be developed with new materials. We welcome further input from you about how we could further extend Resource Zone's offering - do email us at help@ingenta.com with your ideas.
Appointment of a Library Advisory Board
Recognising that there will always be ways in which we can improve our support of the library community, we set up a North American Library Advisory Board in 2006 and appointed high-calibre representatives from our customer base to feed back to us about all our services. The Board's inaugural meeting (reviewed here) was a huge help to us in identifying ways in which we need to continue developing IngentaConnect and its library services, and we look forward to further constructive engagement ongoing.
Addition of 10,000th e-publication to IngentaConnect
In June we were delighted to announce IngentaConnect's achievement of the 10,000 e-publications milestone, following several new publisher signings including Haworth Press. Many users consider the consolidation of several different publishers' content in one place to be one of IngentaConnect's key values; we continue to bring new publishers to the service including several whose content would otherwise have to be accessed on proprietary sites.
Integration with Web 2.0 applications
In September, we released IngentaConnect 2.5, a new version of the site which introduced several user-focussed features such as social bookmarking and better integration with reference citation managers. We have received great feedback (including commendation from the Library 2.0 blog!) for helping to address evolving user needs in this way.
Groundbreaking partnership with Google Scholar
Also in September, we announced the latest development in our relationship with Google, which saw us being the first provider to supply them with library holdings data to enable them to support "appropriate copy" links in Google Scholar for subscribers to IngentaConnect articles. Like any work that breaks new ground, there were some teething troubles which, following input from users, we were able to work closely with Google to resolve. Even now, no other providers been able to provide Google with files in this way so we are proud of our ability to support their work - and your users - in this way.
During the year we also undertook many smaller developments in response to your feedback, including:
- changes to our subscription download lists to accommodate the additional information you said you needed
- introduction of our new 7 Step Renewals Plan which included a standard gracing period to which we asked all our publishers to adhere, and which significantly reduced the number of problems you had previously encountered with lapsing subscriptions
- new free trials feature enabling you to roadtest participating journals to assist with purchasing decisions
- addition of Chinese-language help materials and recruitment of a Chinese customer service representative to provide better support to our library customers in China
We look forward to providing continued support to you and your users during 2007.