DBB on our way to the hyper modern digital library

Elsebeth Tank
Director of DBB, The Danish National Library for the Blind
President of the Daisy Consortium

In its developing process in to the Daisy life the Danish National Library for the Blind (DBB) decided to make the concept of a digital mindset the pivot. Ever since, the library has strived to keep a constant consciousness of setting off from a digital starting point and at the same time unlearning all those ways of thinking, conventions and traditions, tied to the analogue technology and loosing relevance as it is phased out.

The idea has been to move forward the implementation of truly digital processes, which among others implied:

• high speed
• improved individual user services
• more user options
• stronger user functionality
• lower costs per unit in production.

The key of the digital mindset is accepting that the complexity of the digital environment is here to stay, but also that complexity does not equal chaos. The digital world may seem chaotic, uncertain, ambiguous and even paradoxical. But it is also very promising and it challenges human creativity and mental capacity of an organisation.

The digital mindset

The development of the new digital environment walks hand in hand with the phasing out of the analogue technologies, but praxis can no longer be organised according to old habits and the thinking used in the analogue world. All aspects of the operations must be reinvented in a new digital context. This is an exciting challenge for the organisation as a whole, but also complex as it affects all parts of the working processes. Things can no longer be done as before; all processes must be systematically rethought.

Back in 2000 DBB decided to make "digitisation" the keyword for the developing processes and it has been since. This prioritisation has legitimised a long lasting process of a new allocation of resources from anywhere in the organisation to initiatives in the field of digitisation. In fact, the process has been going on for the past eight years. We have evaluated the use of resources again and again and we, therefore, have identified opportunities to save money by means of reorganising and new thinking.

A bugbear for us would be to unconsciously transfer old habits and analogue thinking into the digital world. Our thoughts and ideas have been occupied of the passion to do otherwise.

Therefore we have carefully contemplated all our processes in a digital perspective and subsequently a lot of changes in and around us have been put through.

First of all we have been keen to ensure the most effective and smooth construction when it comes to our internal designing and building of the digitalised processes. All processes are mutually integrated and every detail of the processes from reservation of materials to production, distribution and termination has been analysed and re-engineered, again and again.

Furthermore we have succeeded in carrying out changes in the external environment to develop organisational and legal frames appropriate for production and distribution in a digital society.

On the initiative of DBB the Danish Library Law was changed in 2005 to permit DBB and likewise institutions to produce and distribute materials to handicapped citizens without the request of having the materials to send back. It simply would be to costly to have it back for further circulation. A routine like that belongs to the analogue mindset and seems irrelevant in a digital world.

To continue a successful transition and to create the new splendid image of the ultimate digital library really is a challenge. DBB strives to empower all the members of our organisation to contribute with respect to the need for creative and alternative thinking.

With this ambition in mind, DBB continuously launches barrier breaking organisational developing processes and now and then we succeed in creating an entertaining, environment of high performance. It is powerful when it happens. As it provides everybody involved with a good feeling of enthusiasm, optimism and courage, to go even further.

The implementation process

DBB set out to complete the full transition from analogue to digital technology before end of 2008. The development has proved the chosen step by step transition to have both advantages and disadvantages.

It has been an indisputable advantage that new types of products and forms of distribution have been developed in an iterative process meaning that tests on limited user groups have been carried out in various pre-projects. Consequently, users and DBB both have gained a solid and applicable experience, which endows the ongoing transition with a convenient overview and a sense of confidence. However the costs of running double lines of production for several years have been significant.

One of the very positive experiences was the invention of the digital book clubs for the end users. When the digital book club was first offered DBB missed the capacity to serve a great number of people with different, digital titles at the same time. However the patrons were eager to get started as digital library users. So we had to come up with a balanced opportunity.

The digital book club seemed to be a good idea. By offering the digital book of the month we could send the same title to everybody. It is costly to produce the master copy of the digital audio book but price per digital copy is very low and to produce a great number of the same monthly title to everybody did not prerequisite a new library system (which was not yet in place at that time).

In conjunction with the digital book club we opened a web discussion and invited the club members to give us feedback, to tell us about there technical problems, what they primarily did appreciate, if there was something they absolutely could not accept etc. The users also helped each other in cyper space and together we gained a lot of useful information and inspiration to the future processes. At this time we established the ground for a smooth transferring process which has enabled us to transfer more than 2000 users to the digital services within one month. That was the result for May 2006.

At the time being DBB plans to convert all our magazines and papers to the digital format and to facilitate the processes of transferring users from A to D via reuse of the method from the book club era.

In the interactive process, we get to know more about difficulties for the users caused by new technology, and our attention is brought to important issues that must be taken in to consideration in the development processes. This is highly recommendable.

DBBs digitalised patrons

If a person living in Denmark is prevented from conventional reading due to a disability the person is eligible to become a member of DBB. From 2005 we extended our services to more user groups and therefore we digitally serve:

• Blind and visually impaired
• People with reading disabilities
• Physically Handicapped
• Other disabled

Before 2005 DBB's services was reserved for blind and visually impaired while people with other disabilities could use DBBs services only via the public libraries.

When thinking about transmission of digital content it seemed rather old fashioned to continue the use of the public libraries as channels for disabled users. Rather would it be applying to the ideal of digital mindset to "by pass" the libraries and send directly to the end users. And that is what DBB has been doing since January 2006.

This "by passing" has been looked upon as fairly controversial from the library sectors point of view. It is understandable, but it is a growing trend in society as such and therefore a condition, sine qua non, which the libraries in general will need to find a modern way to respond to.

In the on going discussions and experimental activities taking place among DBB and the libraries in Denmark this condition is often contemplated. Our relationship to the public libraries as to the research libraries is changing. The institutional and legal frames have been laid out but we are still working with a lot of different library communities to develop our new role in the library and in the publishing sector and to help them identify their future roles in providing support to handicapped library users. These development processes will continue in the future. For DBB again the digital mindset approach is KING.

When it comes to digital users, the current plan for DBB in 2006 was to admit 3.500 new digital users to the 1.000 who gained a digital membership in 2005. However, the enthusiasm among disabled patrons to get started digitally has developed more rapidly than anticipated. Therefore, in this warm European summer we have nearly full filled the "2006-mission" concerning number of digitalised users. But we have promised our owners, the Ministry of Culture and our Users Interests Groups to do whatever possible to keep up with the growing request for digital services.

It is expected that DBB by the end of 2009 will have 15.000 digital and individually enrolled users compared with 10.000 today. It is highly possible and also desirable that the new types of products will appeal to more visually impaired fellow citizens as well as people with different disabilities.

Digital services for the end user - everything is on demand

The digital talking books are steps into the future. The DAISY technology provides faster production of better books with high quality in sound and numerous facilities for users. It presents more options and flexibility to the users. In principle users can choose between talking books, e-books and Braille-books without a mentionable increase of costs in the process of production.

As mentioned, the digital materials are now produced and distributed totally on demand and may be kept by the user.

A new library system

A new library system is one of the keystones in DBB's digital set up. The library system has been under construction for some years but since May 2006 is has been functioning well though there are still more improvements to be developed and added.

Like DBB's analogue library system the new system, 'Vubis', handle a lot of user services automatically. With respect to the digital mindset the system now automatically in a continued flow provides the user with the number of titles that reflects the individual member's needs. Such a facility help the users to get the copies needed in a smooth process and at the same time it is a very inexpensive process for DBB. The staff needed to run that kind of processes is kept at an absolute minimum.

www.e17.dk - the library high way for accessible information

The virtual Internet library is an actual example of digital mindset adopted in practice. Today the online portal of the DBB - labelled E17 - is an integrated part of the everyday library service. Users can search the library collections and order the materials available by e-mail or download e-books in different formats directly. DBB offers about 2.000 e-books for download via e17.

Users can interact through virtual bulletin boards and recommend books to each other. The virtual library is equipped with comprehensive guiding facilities especially designed to the user groups of DBB. The contents on E17 can be read aloud in synthetic speak through the programme, WebReader, developed by DBB.

Similar to what is the case in many other countries, Danish print-disabled persons never before have had the opportunity to access a daily newspaper. This unfortunate fact was changed a couple of years ago when DBB accomplished to get an agreement with a daily paper that ever since has been fully accessible on the web. DBB did the technical part of the job and the newspaper paid us to do so. Today we offer 3 daily papers via e17.dk and we expect this collection to grow quite rapidly within the next 3 years.

Digital Audio books

DBB started the audio conversion from A to D in 2002 and ended the process about a year later. Today we offer about 14.000 digital audio titles.

The digital audio books are distributed on CD's. For the moment DBB are able to store 20 - 30 hours audio combined with an xml- structured full text file. The users may keep the CD's but are asked to deteriorate them, when they are no longer of interest - .

Another project recently launched has to do with trying to add more user facilities to some specific books. We are looking primarily at non fiction, dictionaries, studymaterials and likewise to find the most effective way to add pictures, filmclip and other images to audio books full text / full audio. We anticipate the international benefit of exchanging this type of material to be significant.

Braille books on demand

DBB only offer a limited number of Braille books in the digital environment - around 1.000 titles which is a poor number. It is impossible though to continue the lend out services in a digital environment and the old braille books that has been in use for lend out services for 20 or 40 years are in a very poor condition - in any respect. Therefore DBB has decided to condemn them as unfit for modern library services.

For this the reason, the number of Braille title available from DBB today is limited. To make up for this step backward, DBB has decided to extraordinary re - produce 120 old braille titles in 2006/2007 and we regard this to be the first step toward improved services on Braille.

Since 2002 DBB has offered braille books on-demand, only. The user gets the book a few days after it has been ordered. We don't want to have it back. It can be kept or thrown away when the attraction has disappeared. Hence, a lot of administrative and manual processes are eliminated. We do not actually save money through the print on demand service at the moment, nor is it more costly than has been the case before. The budget balances but cost-reductions are expected in the future.

Digitalised Braille music on its way

DBB has developed a large collection of music in Braille produced over the past 60 years. The Braille collection is unique - also in an international perspective. The collection contains 6.000 compositions and in opposite to the books in Braille the music is archived on zinc sheets and therefore can be digitalised, hopefully to the benefit of blind music lovers world wide.

At the time being DBB is trying to raise money for this project which will hopefully be ended before 2008.

DRM - solutions

Everything has its price. To get permission from the Parliament and to get a good agreement with the Publishers Association in Denmark DBB has accepted to introduce DRM solutions in the digital units distributed to the patrons.

As a trusted environment DBB guarantee that digital material is not distributed through unauthorised sources. This request is met by allocating all library users an ID-number, which is integrated in the digital materials as part of the process of production on demand.

Materials brought out on CD are furthermore marked with the postal address of the receiver. Should materials from the library be inappropriately distributed the ID-number can be used to identify the source of the abuse.

In 2006 materials containing audio will also have digital watermarks installed, which can identify the user, who received the material. Methods of encrypting materials specifically for the use of individual users are being worked out. Both watermarks and encryption to a specific user can be added to the material. The developing process of DRM standard and tools are conducted under the auspices of The Daisy Consortium.

The DRM matter is a sensitive one and naturally is it essential that the DRM solutions do not in any regard interferre with the need for easy access

An economic point of view

The new digital practice has been inspired by the potential of digital technology. From DBBs point of view the download of materials electronically naturally should be the perspective for the distribution of the digital talking book, as well.

The consequence of digital on-demand distribution is a reduction in the publicly funded costs for transportation of materials. Furthermore the library no longer needs resources to receive, handle and put returned materials back in place on shelves. The best part of the story will be when the resources formerly allocated for analogue manual processes can be transferred to new digital inventions with the respect to the users needs.

Communication and PR

The world is open. The goals are obvious but the opportunities to get us even further are not fully exploited, not until now, that is! The library sector and the libraries serving people with special needs have never before faced the unique chances to ensure equal access to information for everyone as we now do.

We have to spare no efforts to make the most out of this challenge. Nationally, working from our libraries and information providing organisations and internationally, in a collaborative effort.

Never before have we working with DBB given so much attention and resources to communication. To communicate the message of the digital library service and all the new options it contains. To communicate the need for collaboration to other information providers, to libraries, to publishers and the like.

We have to open up our organisations and we have to last but not least cross old barriers, think open minded, think in an innovative way.

Facts about DBB

DBB is located in Copenhagen - the capital of Denmark, and from this place we produce and distribute materials to the patrons all over the country.

We have:

11.000 individual members
14.000 digital audio books
300 magazines
3 digital papers
1.000 braille books on demand (more on its way)
1.000 braille music units (3.000 on its way)
1. million units send to users each year
75 full time staff members
Governmental fund 5 million Euro yearly
Funds and earnings at about 1/2 million Euro yearly

Further information can be found at www.dbb.dk.
and www.E17.dk