Academic libraries need full-text search for all of their monographs, but three problems have always
stood in the way:
Copyright law restrictions
A belief that a library must digitize all of its books or even a large percentage
25-year-old data showing unaffordably high digitization costs per book
Both problems have almost completely vanished, while new technologies have greatly simplified the
process:
In 2015, Federal Judge Chin ruled that full text content can be retained for search.
An academic library need only digitize 1-2% of its monographs to serve 80 to 90% or more of
patron interests in monographs by moving the highest value books to a new type of Concentrated
Collections Area (CCA), turnkey solutions available.
A revolutionary new search-match discovery system called HotLinks that outperforms standard key
word search and identifies whole chapters of interest with a high confidence for motivating
users to make a trip to the library to digitize excerpts using a self-serve digitization system
– access reports available (e.g. for budgeting).
A highly efficient ILL workflow for monograph chapters that, with the newest, fastest KIC
systems, [finally] makes digital document delivery (ILL) for monograph excerpts affordable, with
10 requests fulfillable per hour per worker – access reports available (e.g. for budgeting).
Support for pandemics:
Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that prohibits redistribution of digital content and is
made for libraries to lend or distribute content digitized from their print collections.
From the time Web search engines first appeared, academic patrons have wished for full-text search
for all monographs in their library’s collections. While they could easily get the digital form
using a fast KIC self-serve digitization kiosk, they could not search digitally for relevant
content. Over time, this need for digital search became stronger and stronger, as evidenced by the
steady decline in utilization of scholarly monographs across America.
DLSG
Strategy
Some library vendors try to do everything. Some try to be the best
at a
few
things. DLSG tries to be best at a few things, mostly library technologies that require
DLSG’s
very
innovative and specialized design and engineering abilities. As you may know, DLSG has
never had much competition - a thousand academic
libraries
have KIC, BSCAN ILL, Opus, Click Mini, Bookeye and WideTEK digitization systems and
scanners,
including 90 of the top 100 academic institutions. To
facilitate adoption, DLSG products integrate with special systems such as Illiad,
Odyssey,
Tipasa
and Relais, and with integrated library systems (ILS) via standard SIP2 protocol.
Mission
To create technologies that maximize utilization of scholarly
content in
libraries for study, research and scholarly productivity by dramatically expanding
digital
access to
print collections content, removing inefficiencies from the research process and
providing
revolutionary new discovery+research+study systems while maintaining compliance with
copyright
law.
History
In 2004, DLSG sold its first KIC, BSCAN ILL, and Opus systems. Ten
years
later, nearly 70% of students at US universities were served by DLSG digitization
systems (90%
by
budget), and public libraries were beginning to investigate and learn the value of
DLSG technologies. In 2015, DLSG began developing the Digital Library Ecosystem. After
six years
and
over a quarter of a million R&D professional hours invested, the Digital Library
Ecosystem is
ready,
with excellent provisions for serving the study and
research challenges caused by social distancing.
The Digital Age Librarian
The role libraries and librarians play in helping their patrons find
unbiased
information is especially challenging in the digital age. The Web has become a powerful source
of
misinformation – the biggest advertising Web sites, both social and search, track
each user with algorithms that maximize the time users spend viewing the advertising by
identifying
the content that aligns with the user’s pre-existing opinions, without regard for accuracy. Even
without these algorithms, instant access to Web search
results makes it all too easy for people to disregard more vetted sources of information. The
$100+
that billion libraries have invested in scholarly content over decades and centuries is far more
factual and independent of political or social affiliation than
a majority of what is found on the Web, and unlike the Web, printed content is essentially
immutable. While highly innovative new research technologies are of great value to PhD
researchers,
they can also empower students and the general public to
find vetted and unbiased information, which can help to create an anti-misinformation movement,
helping to reduce disagreements in our society to just those topics that are actually arguable.
The licenses for the content in printed books owned by libraries
are more valuable than digital licenses for the same content
Printed Book
Digital Rights
Print / Digital Lending
Current lending methods/practices
Unlimited Digitize-on-demand
of excerpts, using patron-operated
self-serve
kiosks
Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)
of digitized content, whole items or excerpts, for virtually any
checkout
time
duration
of digitized content, whole items or excerpts, for virtually any
checkout
and
blackout time durations
ILL & Digital Document Delivery
with the same nominal restrictions that have long applied to print
content
(no additional restrictions imposed by the publisher’s DRM system)
Digital Access Not Outside The premises
of
the Library
of works that have been digitized that are unpublished or damaged,
deteriorating, lost, stolen, or in an
obsolete format using digital fence technology
Support for HotLinks & KSS
next generation research/discovery built into a research tool with fast
navigation between hundreds of highly relevant hyperlinked items;
and a portable advanced study system with ReadAlong Audio,
computer-assisted
skim,
HotLinkable highlighting, custom flash cards, and graphical study
progress
Supports Optimal Print-Digital Ratio
high use books can be concentrated in an area of the library with
self-serve
digitization kiosks; rarely accessed
books can be moved off-site; KAT Stacks digital
stacks browsing technology can make navigating and finding content easy
The Publishers’ Perspectives
Your publishers’ representatives are just doing their jobs when they extoll the
merits
of purchasing new digital licenses without any consideration for the value of your
existing print collections. However, your
publishers’ marketing departments have a different relationship with libraries.
While librarians rarely meet their publishers’ marketing teams, libraries have
always
helped them market new titles. One might think that Amazon promotes new titles
effectively enough these days, but
libraries continue to play an essential role in promoting new books. Libraries
showcase
new books that they lend for free to a large percentage of the population, and
library
patrons promote the books to
friends and family members as well as fellow researchers and students, many of whom
prefer the convenience of buying books.
This symbiotic relationship between publishers and libraries should not be
forgotten,
and HotLinks Research Tool provides a unique new win-win opportunity for libraries
and
publishers that work together.
HotLinks Research Tool is a next generation discovery system for scholarly content
that
exposes students and researchers to a tremendous number of relevant copyrighted
titles
that are not found using current
discovery systems. By supporting a BUY button on the HotLinks content excerpt
screens,
students and researchers are able to purchase the books, thus fulfilling a fair use
requirement of copyright law
(Section 107). This in turn compels publishers to support libraries’ controlled
digital
lending solutions for the huge investments in scholarly content in print form that
they
have made over the decades, and that
in the digital age, libraries are compelled to loan digitally.
HotLinks Research Tool was developed with two goals in mind: 1) to greatly improve
the
discovery process; and 2) to significantly increase awareness of and demand for
scholarly content worldwide.
Four Steps to Dramatically Increase
The Value of Your Scholarly Print Collections
1. Digitize-On-Demand for Frequently Accessed Items
A single print item can be copied (an excerpt at a time) an unlimited number of
times,
which,
along with high quality and low prices explain why
KIC digitization
systems
are on a thousand college campuses across the US and Canada. Promote
digitize-on-demand
to
your study and
research patrons by creating a centrally located section of the stacks with your
frequently
accessed books and materials, with multiple self-serve digitize-on-demand stations
nearby.
The concentration of highly used materials will also concentrate patrons and create
a
collective
energy that will increase the apparent value of your print collections. Ideally,
your
reference
and reserves materials should also be nearby.
2. Optimized Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)
Libraries need DRM specifically for lending the content in their print collections:
Copyright law for libraries has been updated for the digital age, but remains
substantially underutilized
The digital rights management (DRM) systems used by publishers are NOT ideal for
lending
It doesn’t take much to convince most librarians that KAT Stacks is valuable. The
big
question is: “How expensive and difficult is it to get?”
It is actually quite easy to setup a computer generated (CGI) version of KAT Stacks
that
matches your print collections – simply bulk load your
collections into KAT Stacks by importing your MARC records. CGI versions of the
spines
and
covers of your items are automatically created.
Then walk through your library with a WiFi-connected tablet, identifying each aisle
and
the
first book on each shelf. KAT Stacks can also be
informed which books are in special sections such as reserves and your new digitize-on-demand
section, and which books have been moved
to storage. When users are viewing a single shelf in KAT Stacks, they can switch to
a
mode
that includes the books in storage and in special
sections of the library – digital shelves have no width limits.
To stay current as your collection changes, and to show the checkout status of each
item,
KAT Stacks integrates with your ILS via SIP2.
For a very realistic and immersive virtual reality experience for the most important
sections of your stacks, use the KIC Covers & Spines option
to digitize up to 100 spines and covers per hour.
4. HotLinks Research Tool – Beyond Search
While it is certainly useful, catalog search is woefully inadequate for research and
study -
the catalog contains too little information to be truly
effective. Even full text search has limitations: 1) a full-text search system
should be
tightly connected with the holdings of your library and
your library’s ILS; 2) while studying, your student patrons should be able to
instantly
and
easily access content from your print collections that
closely matches the textbook chapters they are currently studying; and 3) your
researchers
should be able to instantly and easily find the
hundred or so closest matches in your entire print collections and perhaps beyond,
to
the
dozens or hundreds of pages of text that they have
created on a particular research topic.
HotLinks Research
Tool allows students and researchers to find valuable scholarly books that
they
would never otherwise encounter. When
used as high-speed study & research input machines, KIC digitization systems allow
students
to capture full textbook chapters, and allow
researchers to capture and combine large amounts of printed and digital text, in
just a
few
minutes, then output the content to
MyDocs(a free
study/research
app
for phones, tablets & PCs), along with metadata that characterizes all pages
of
input for HotLinks Research Tool.
While studying or researching, the user selects an anchor term (a search term),
invokes
HotLinks Research Tool, and is instantly able to swipe
or scroll through the 100 or so best matches to the entire chapter or research text
that
also contains the anchor term.
Together, DLSG’s Digitize-on-demand KIC systems, MyDocs with KIC Study System and
optimized
CDL, KAT Stacks and HotLinks Research Tool
reinvent the library in the digital age. DLSG has a name for this entire integrated
transformation: the
Digital Stacks Ecosystem. Perhaps it’s
time to reinvent and renew partnerships between publishers and libraries.
Section 108 lets libraries distribute many PDF copies of a single original
(no one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio!), copies that the patron can
keep forever (no checkout time limits), this is strong evidence of the solid support copyright
law provides to libraries, especially considering the fact that, unlike CDL, PDFs have no
software restrictions against secondary distribution, which, via email, can be instant and
extensive.
The Best Values for Harvesting: Self-Serve Digitization Kiosks and
ILL/Digital
Document Delivery
Self-serve copying and scanning, distribution of course materials, and ILL/Digital Document Delivery
offer the best harvesting values, for these methods allow
excerpts of a single item to be shared many times (no owned-to-loaned ratio) and the patron can keep
the
content forever – no checkout time limits.
Over the years, course materials have been distributed as paper copies or in electronic form (on
writable CDs). Scanning for print or electronic distribution
can be done using KIC Self-serve Digitization Kiosks or BSCAN ILL systems. Either way, the value of
the
copies is typically far greater than the cost.
Note that libraries have been maximizing their Library Superpowers for over 50 years with
Concentrated Collections Areas such as reading rooms, special collections areas and reference
sections. These areas were originally equipped with copiers, but most changed to KIC Self-serve
digitization systems between 2005 and 2015.
Learn more...
Copright Law May Soon Change
If the U.S. Copyright Office Has Its Way, Libraries May Soon Have More “Superpowers”
The U.S. Copyright Office recognizes the need to update Section 108:
“...section 108 has failed to keep up with the rise of digital media and
technologies that have fundamentally changed the way in which copyrighted
works are made, distributed, preserved, and accessed. ... The "Section 108
Study Group" was tasked with engaging in independent discussion and
producing an independent report and set of recommendations. See: U.S. Copyright
Office - Revising Section 108: Copyright Exceptions for Libraries and Archives
market for or value of the copyrighted work.”) and more important, better
serves the citizens, as dictated by the U.S. constitutional clause that allows copyright law
to exist (“To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times
to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”)
HotLinks Research Tool – revolutionary discovery for locating
relevant excerpts within monographs
FOUR SUGGESTED REVISIONS TO COPYRIGHT LAW
that DLSG is offering the Section 108 Study Group
DLSG suggests the following Digital Millennium Copyright Act revisions in support of substantial
benefits to citizens while maintaining fairness to copyrights holders. Note that suggested wording
is shown in gold.
Exceptions for Library Patrons With Disabilities, a long overdue
update to Section 108 –
specifically, self-serve copying of excerpts: … the digital form of content can be made easily
accessible to patrons with disabilities, with no requirements for such patrons to perform manual
discovery and/or digitization operations, and sufficient numbers of digital copies can be
retained for this purpose to ensure no loss of data.
Section 107 and 108 revisions: Full-text and images of graphics of any and all copyrighted
content can be retained by libraries for digital discovery for all patrons, including multiple
copies as needed to avoid loss of data in the event of storage device or media failure.
REASONING FOR THE ABOVE REVISIONS TO US COPYRIGHT LAW
Reasoning for #1 above: The reason libraries are required to
re-digitize the same content each time
it is requested is to support distribution of free copies while providing ‘economic resistance’ that
discourages unbridled copying. The current law, which has been in effect since 1976, does not,
however, prevent those receiving copies from redistributing the content. If the library is willing
to add this control, a control that is not currently required by copyright law, then it is only fair
that the library and its patrons receive something in return. DLSG proposes that, in return for
prohibiting redistribution, libraries should not have to do the ‘busy work’ of rescanning content
each time it is requested.
Reasoning for #2 above: Judge Chin ruled in the 2015 Authors Guild vs
Google lawsuit that full-text
search is too valuable for it to be denied to the public and it does not in itself negatively impact
copyrights holders. In fact, full-text search may be the only way to support the declining monograph
publishing industry. If, however, the content of interest is displayed without restrictions, then
the user might have no reason to purchase the associated item. But what is the value of a discovery
system if it cannot show its findings, especially if the findings are the result of one or a few
search terms? This seemingly unresolvable problem has a simple solution. Showing several randomly
selected pages promotes the purchase of the item in two ways: 1) the reader gets an idea of the
quality and relevance of the content; and 2) the user’s interest in the content is highly unlikely
to be satisfied by viewing several random pages. Sampling actual content is necessary to allow the
selection of the most relevant and highest quality excerpts of content that are found using modern
discovery systems.
Reasoning for #3 above: Prior to the digital age, the only way a
library could accommodate special
needs patrons who wish to benefit from a library’s self-serve copying equipment was for library
staff to perform the copying. This support, however, did not assist the special needs patrons with
discovering content of interest. Modern digital technology makes both of these possible. However,
copyright law does not explicitly support the use of technology to serve special needs patrons.
DLSG’s suggested copyright law revision many possible technological solutions to serve special needs
library patrons.
Reasoning for #4 above: While Judge Chin’s 2015 ruling states this, it
is important for libraries to
feel 100% confident that that they are not at risk of a lawsuit brought by copyrights holders, even
if libraries are likely to prevail.
Monograph publishing is declining, despite its great value for students
and researchers. DLSG’s Aggregate CDL solution is perhaps the only
answer to the dire problem of declining publishing rates for scholarly
monographs. DLSG’s CDL+ also includes a request-fulfill workflow for
monograph excerpts that can be found using Google Scholar’s full-text
search facility, and soon, DLSG’s revolutionary HotLinks Research Tool.
Support for Social Distancing
Only CDL, both basic and DLSG’s CDL+ fully support
social distancing, while traditional harvest methods
do not, except for digital ILL & Digital Document
Delivery (DDD), and to some degree, self-serve
scanning.
DLSG’s CDL+ solution can be serving up content in
a day, and it costs only $4,999 per year, includes a
fast and reliable cloud hosted server. Also, a
substantial discount applies if purchased in 2022.
CDL Animation |Serve More Students per Book with a
Controlled Digital Lending Solution from DLSG
Use DLSG’s Directed Lending Solution to Maximize use of digital copies of your
print collections in
accordance with copyright law
This system emulates standard physical reserves systems in academic libraries,
but with added support
for distance learning (e.g. during COVID) – each student can access the same
book a few minutes to
several hours at a time, and when finished, the next student can access the
book.
Part 1 – setting up a directed lending profile
Once a digital copy of the content is posted to a DSE Content Server, a library
staff member can setup a
directed lending profile by finding the item and entering the professor and
class, the number of copies
being set aside for this, the start and end date during which the content can be
accessed, and the
checkout and blackout durations.
Part 2 – One-to-one (1:1) Owned to Loaned Ratio
The first and second students checkout the two available copies of
the content. Due to
automatic enforcement of a one-to-one (1:1) owned to loaned ratio, attempts by
the remaining students to
checkout the content fail, whereupon they each request email notification when
the content is again
available for checkout.
Part 3 –Checkouts Times End, Blackout Times Begin and Automatic
Emails are Sent
When the checkout time ends for students one and two, their blackout
times begin and all
other students are informed by email that the content is available for
checkout.
Part 4 – Blackout times Allow Other Students Access
Because of blackout times, the third and fourth students are able to
checkout the copies,
but the fifth student is still unable to checkout the content
Part 5 – The Fifth Student Gets Access
In as little as four hours, the first four students can each have
two hours of study time
and the fifth student is able to checkout the book for two hours as well, while
the first four students
wait for their blackout times to end. Next two student’s checkout time ends and
their blackout times
begin; the last student is informed by email that the content is available, and
he checks out the
content
Part 6 – The First Student again has access
24 hours after the first student lost access to the content, he/she
can again access the content for two hours.
DSE Content Server
Not available
Not available
Can be Offline
Can be Offline
Can be Offline
Can be Offline
Can be Offline
Unlike Other CDL Systems, DLSG’s Directed Lending is HIGHLY
TRANSFORMATIVE
The greatest benefit of digitizing content from your highly valuable
print collection is not that it
facilitates distance learning during COVID, but rather the powerful study and research
enhancing tools that
require content to be digital. The four powerful study enhancing features of DLSG's
Directed Lending
Solution shown here allow students to recover lost time and study instantly anywhere,
enhance retention,
instantly access alternate treatments of their study material, and instantly access
content through the
most powerful new research tool in existence.
Introduction
Your Checkout Time Has Expired
Read on a phone without eyestrain
Set and change the speed to match your need
In today’s challenging academic environments, students must be
able to study anywhere, any time. Our SKIM feature provides easy reading anywhere with
your phone, even for
visually impaired.
Your Checkout Time Has Expired
ReadAlong Audio for Better Retention
Students Increase focus and reinforce retention with ReadAlong Audio, effective on
phone, tablet and PC, and
move effortlessly between their devices without losing their place and with full Study
Progress Monitoring a
touch away.
Instantly Access Alternate Treatments
At any time while studying, swipe
the screen for instant access to alternate treatments of the material currently being
studied - the most
relevant match from a million
pages of Open Educational Resources. As such, HotLinks Study Tool can be a 24/7
on-demand replacement for
collaboration with
other students.
Instantly Research Billions of Pages
HotLinks Research Tool leads the
way to a whole new era in research, taking dozens of pages of research as input,
characterizing all pages,
then in seconds, finding
the best matches from a billion pages of monographs and other scholarly content.
HotLinks then lines the
results up for instant
access of result after result, one per swipe/click.
Comparison Chart
Traditional Distribution and Lending vs Basic CDL vs DLSG's Transformative CDL+
DLSG’s CDL+ is the only highly transformative CDL system available today, and
therefore the only CDL system that complies with the copyright case law
represented by Judge Chin’s ruling in the Google vs Authors Guild case.
DLSG’s Course Materials Request System provides a scanning workflow similar to
those
used for fulfilling ILL requrest, as well as an organized and efficient
method of storing items while accessible via CDL, then reshelving the items when no longer
accessible
via CDL, in support of a one-to-one owned-to-loaned
ratio.
The U.S. Patent Office’s Section 108 Study Group has been working for 20 years and has not come to
an
agreement. Perhaps it’s time for a
new approach. DLSG’s answer, Aggregate CDL serves copyrights holders and libraries, but most of all,
citizens at large.
The U.S. Constitution allows copyright law to exist for the sole purpose of promoting the authoring and publishing of works that
benefit society. And while many scholarly monographs are created to fill the “publish or perish”
directive, scholarly monographs are important
and sometimes essential facilitators of the development of new science and technology, and to
improve
the human condition. However, over
the past 20 years, monograph publishing rates have declined significantly.
DLSG’s Aggregate CDL is designed to expose researchers and students to vastly more relevant content
from
scholarly monographs while in the
library. And when not in the library, the user is given the opportunity to rent or buy the content,
presumably using department or personal funds
This provides the revenue impetus authors and publishers need to write and publish more monographs,
without using library funds. And once
Aggregate CDL is setup, the ‘in the library’ requirement can be relaxed from the first day of the
next
pandemic, and ended when the institution
deems appropriate.
DLSG’s Aggregate CDL system includes HotLinks Research Tool, which allows the user to input entire
research papers for the system to
characterize and perform DLSG’s exclusive search and match function and provide instant access to
100 of the most relevant items from your
library, and highlight important content. When the user leaves the library, the content is not
accessible, but the highlights are retained, up to
10% of the content of each volume reviewed. The user can access the content while not in the
library, if desired, by simply renting or buying the
desired content. Upon returning to the library, the content is again visible, with the highlights.
The highlights can also be output in an editable
format with source citations
In summary, DLSG’s Aggregate CDL:
Provides a revolutionary new method of discovery and analysis designed specifically for
researchers
and students, a method that instantly
exposes them to large numbers of relevant print collections items
Provides full access to all content of all copyrighted items in the library’s print collections,
while in the library
Strongly promotes the library as an extremely effective research center
Promotes the purchase or rental of copyrighted content when not in the library for those who can
afford it, and as a consequence, promotes
the authoring and publishing of more scholarly monographs, not just for credentialing the
author,
but to advance science, technology and the
human condition.
Basic CDL versus Aggregate CDL Diagram 1
Basic CDL
1-to-1 Lending – students must wait
Aggregate CDL
1-to-Many Lending – no waiting
Basic CDL has a simple one-to-one owned-to-loaned
ratio requirement. If the library owns only one
printed copy of book A and one printed copy of book
B, it can simultaneously lend only one digital copy of
book A and one digital copy of book B. Basic CDL
does not allow a library to lend multiple digital copies
when it owns only one printed copy of a book.
Aggregate CDL also has an owned-to-loaned ratio requirement,
but that requirements is based on dollars spent and lent. If in a
given year, a library buys only one printed copy of book A and
one printed copy of book B from a particular publisher, but also
buys a sufficient number of esoteric scholarly monographs from
the same publisher, the library can lend more copies of books A
and B than it owns, provided the total dollars spent is less than
or equal to the total dollar value lent.
Basic CDL versus Aggregate CDL Diagram 2
Basic CDL
With Basic CDL, to avoid waiting, the library
must buy multiple copies of common books
Aggregate CDL
With Aggregate CDL, spending and publisher revenue are the
same, but the library gets a bonus: esoteric scholarly monographs
The Aggregate CDL Bonus: more esoteric
scholarly monographs at no additional cost.
With basic CDL, if a library wishes to allow several students
to checkout the same book simultaneously, the library must
purchase multiple additional copies of that same book. This
is wasteful and it does not promote the publishing of
esoteric scholarly monographs.
With aggregate CDL, the library can spend the same dollar
amount with a particular publisher, but buy only one copy
of each popular book that it needs, and spend the balance
of the money on esoteric scholarly volumes, represented
above by books C, D and E in the diagram above. The rule
for this example, in summary is:
3 x Acost + 2 x Bcost < Acost + Bcost + Ccost + Dcost + Ecost
MyDocs Library App
MyDocs Library App allows users to harvest, capture & organize
all library and textbook content for study and research on phone/tablet/PC.
Access ILL/DDD content, any digital output from KIC scan
stations, and any imported digital material. In addition, course materials, and reserves can
be made accessible for online checkout anytime with CDL+ (controlled digital lending)
Reading while listening is well known to significantly improve
retention. In addition, users can also use just the audio or read normally without
audio.
Highlighting with FlashCards
(3 Study Methods)
Students are able to highlight their own private digital copy
without
defacing a textbook that they don't own, and instead of simply highlighting
important
text, KSS makes flashcards that can be used for easy review, and quiz themselves on
the
highlighted points. Note that frequent quizzes are well know to improve retention.
SKIM
(2 Study Methods)
This feature can be used in two modes: 1) at high speed (e.g.
400-600
words per minute), for pre-reading a paragraph or two just prior to ReadAlong Audio,
for
reviewing just before a test, or for looking for some particular information that
the
student hasn't been able to find by searching; and 2) at normal reading speed (e.g.
at
120-400 words per minute) for more comfortable reading on the small screen of a
smart
phone.
Study Progress Monitoring
This features shows how much of the study material has been covered once, twice or
more
using ReadAlong Audio, Skim and the study mode of Flashcards. In addition, it shows
the
results of the one and multiple flashcard quizzes.
Study Dashboard
This feature shows study progress summary information for each course that is in
progress, allowing students to better allocate their study time between courses.
Small Smart Phone Support
KSS intelligently reflows text, pictures , diagrams, etc. for surprisingly effective
studying experience on small smart phones. MyDocs Personal Network can automatically
transfer study materials between Phone, Tablet and PC.
Personal Network
Once in their phone, KSS packets can be automatically transferred to the students'
tablet and PC for seamless switching between devices for optimal study
effectiveness.
Instant Access to Research
HotLinks Research Tool – Once a researcher inputs dozens of pages of personal
research as well
as journal articles, etc., into a KIC digitization system at the library and outputs
KSS packets
to MyDocs, he/she is a few touches and screen swipes away from instant access to up
to 100 pages
of the most relevant content in the HotLinks and DSE Content Server systems.
Instant Access to Alternate Study Materials
HotLinks Study Tool – Students that use KIC digitization systems at the library to
digitize a
textbook chapter and output a KSS packet to MyDocs can touch and swipe to the most
relevant
alternate study materials from a million pages of Open Educational Resources, or
from all
monographs in the HotLinks and DSE Content Server systems.
HotLinks Research Tool
Give Your Researchers Instant Access to Billions of pages of Relevant
Content
For Scholars and Researchers, HotLinks Research Tool provides a revolutionary
search-match system
that takes up to 100 pages of personal research as input and instantly matches
it
with
billions of
pages of scholarly content in the print collections of your library and the
libraries of
other
Digital Stacks Project members. HotLinks instantly finds 100 matches
representing
the
most relevant
content from billions of pages. Researchers are able to find valuable content
that
they
would never
find with standard search systems.
HotLinks Research Tool results can be viewed as
‘sample’
pages from the
entire volume
that promote copyrighted content that might otherwise remain unknown.
For better compliance with the Fair Use section of copyright law, the library
can
enable
the ability
for researchers to purchase the full content.
Instantly Research Billions of Pages
HotLinks Research Tool leads the
way to a whole new era in research, taking dozens of pages of research as input,
characterizing all pages,
then in seconds, finding
the best matches from a billion pages of monographs and other scholarly content.
HotLinks then lines the
results up for instant
access of result after result, one per swipe/click.
HotLinks Study Tool
Instant Access to Your Print Collections
Library print collections are substantially more
valuable than their digital equivalent and you already own them.
The extensive
digital rights management features of DLSG's controlled digital lending solution
allow digitized content from printed books to be shared more effectively than
purely
digital content, provided you retain the print copy. For example, your popular
printed books can be left on the shelf near high speed digitize-on-demand kiosks
and
for easy copying of virtually unlimited numbers of excerpts.
In addition, HotLinks Research Tool's search-match algorithms instantly and
easily
find precious 'needle in the haystacks' research content from vast print
collections
- content that would not be found by searching digital card catalogs or full
text
searches of all content. HotLinks Research Tool runs on key terms and other
content
characterizing information that does not require purchase of digital licenses.
Give Your Students Instant Access to 1,000 Open
Educational Resource Titles
The most valuable of its transformative features
for
students is HotLinks Study Tool, which can take an entire textbook chapter as
input
and instantly provides access to the full text of the most relevant Open
Educational
Resources (OER) from 1,000 high quality titles, over half a million pages.
Instantly Access Alternate Treatments
At any time while studying, swipe
the screen for instant access to alternate treatments of the material currently
being
studied - the most
relevant match from a million
pages of Open Educational Resources. As such, HotLinks Study Tool can be a 24/7
on-demand replacement for
collaboration with
other students.
Some of the Instantly Accessible OER Titles
LibreTexts
An Introduction to Nutrition
Bio2 Introduction to Human Biology
Biochemistry Free and Easy
Biochemistry Free for All
Biochemistry Online
Biodiversity
Biofundamentals
BIOL3300 Genetics
Biology
Book Laboratory Exercises in Microbiology
Cascade Microbiology
Cells Molecules and Mechanisms
Entomology Lab Manual
Environmental Science
Environmental Biology
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Forest Measurements and Applied Approach
General Biology
General Microbiology Lab Manual
Introduction to Botany
Introduction to Environmental Science
Introduction to Genetics
Introduction to Microbiology
L C C Introduction to Botany Hawaii Based
Microbiology
MKBN211 Introductory Microbiology
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods
Quantitative Ecology A New Unified Approach
Information Systems for Business and Beyond
International Finance Theory and Policy
Introduction to Business
Macroeconomics
Principles of Macroeconomics
African American History
U S History
World History Cultures States and Societies to 1500
Psychology
Introductory Psychology
Sociology
International Relations Theory
Minority Studies
International Relations
Together The Science Of Social Psychology
Mind Body World Foundations Of Cognitive Science
A Short Introduction To World Politics
Principles Of Microeconomics
Biological Anthropology
A Primer On Politics
Introduction To Human Geography
World Regional Geography
Social Problems Continuity And Change
Language and Culture in Context
Discover Psychology a Brief Introductory Text
OpenStax
Algebra Trigonometry
American Government
Anatomy Physiology
A P Biology
A P College Physics
A P Macroeconomics
A P Microeconomics
Astronomy
Biology
Business Ethics
Business Law1
Calculus Volume1
Calculus Volume2
Calculus Volume3
Chemistry
Chemistry Atoms First
College Algebra
College Physics
College Success
Concepts Of Biology
Economics
Elementary Algebra
Entrepreneurship
Financial Accounting Volume1
Intermediate Algebra
Introduction To Business
Introductory Business Statistics
Introductory Statistics
Macroeconomics
Managerial Accounting Volume2
Microbiology
Microeconomics
Organizational Behavior
Physics Volume1
Physics Volume2
Physics Volume3
Pre- Algebra
Pre- Calculus
Principles Of Management
Psychology
Psychology-2e
Sociology
Statistics High school
U S History
Bay College
English 101
English 102
History 211
History 212
FYE103 Career Exploration
StanfordUniversityPress
American Yawp Volume 1
American Yawp Volume 2
KIC Study System - Part of MyDocs with Controlled Digital Lending (DRM)
KIC Study System dramatically improves study efficiency and effectiveness
MyDocs is a free download from Microsoft, Apple and Android stores KSS is a part of MyDocs that
provides
free access to Open Educational Resources (OER) and scanned content from KIC systems, with the
following
features:
ReadAlong Audio
Computer-assisted skim/review
Custom flashcards
Highlighting (HotLinked Highlights coming soon)
Study progress monitoring
Instant search-match and access to scholarly content via HotLinks Research & Study Tools
Repeat Audio for memorization as well as better retention and to assist with understanding
And more
HotLinks Research Tool
Scan or import research material as input to HotLinks. Your source
material can be any length - just a few pages or 100 pages. Hotlinks is far better
than
keyword search. It characterizes the source material as whole, compares them with a
billion
pages of scholarly content, and returns the 100 best matches in seconds.
HotLinks offsets untold hours of administrative load and allows
researchers to see the closest matches to their source material with simple repeated
swipes
across their touch screens, revealing consecutive search-matches.
HotLinks Study Tool
Students scan textbook chapters and course materials, send to
MyDocs app
on their tablet, phone or PC, and study with KSS.
At any time while studying their materials, they can activate
HotLinks and
swipe their screen and get instant access to high quality OER content that matches
their
current study topic, exposing them to alternate treatments of whatever they are
studying.
This can be an effective alternative to collaborative study during COVID.
Scan and send to MyDocs
KIC Study System
HotLinks Study Tool
Use any KIC station to scan course material, textbook chapters,
and other
study material quickly and efficiently.
Open resulting PDF in KIC Study System to skim, hear the material
read
around, and make, study and test flashcards.
Swipe to see other sources in OER libraries to read addition
treatments
and expand your understanding of the study material.
KSS for High School Students
Distance learning has disrupted study time as much as it has
disrupted
teaching. KIC Study System's graphical study progress tracking can be a great study
coach.
It also provides a powerful alternative to collaborative study - instant access to
alternate
treatments of a topic.
When a student is having trouble understanding some material, a
mouse-click or touch screen swipe provides instant access to high-quality OER
content on the
same topic.
"I've skimmed and read my history twice. Time for biology."
"This SKIM is great for studying when I'm stuck somewhere with just my
phone."
Open Educational Resources (OER) for High School and Lower
Division
College Students
Use KSS instantly and free with the following OER
"My professor just told us about KSS and how to get the OER
textbook he
assigned. KSS is a great way to study."
LibreTexts
An Introduction to Nutrition
Bio2 Introduction to Human Biology
Biochemistry Free and Easy
Biochemistry Free for All
Biochemistry Online
Biodiversity
Biofundamentals
Biol3300 Genetics
Biology
Book Laboratory Exercises in Microbiology
Cascade Microbiology
Cells Molecules and Mechanisms
Entomology Lab Manual
Environmental Science
Environmental Biology
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Forest Measurements and Applied Approach
General Biology
General Microbiology Lab Manual
Introduction to Botany
Introduction to Environmental Science
Introduction to Genetics
Introduction to Microbiology
L C C Introduction to Botany Hawaii Based
Microbiology
MKBN211 Introductory Microbiology
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods
Quantitative Ecology A New Unified Approach
Information Systems for Business and Beyond
International Finance Theory and Policy
Introduction to Business
Macroeconomics
Principles of Macroeconomics
African American History
U S History
World History Cultures States and Societies to 1500
Psychology
Introductory Psychology
Sociology
International Relations Theory
Minority Studies
International Relations
Together The Science Of Social Psychology
Mind Body World Foundations Of Cognitive Science
A Short Introduction To World Politics
Principles Of Microeconomics
Biological Anthropology
A Primer On Politics
Introduction To Human Geography
World Regional Geography
Social Problems Continuity And Change
Language and Culture in Context
Discover Psychology a Brief Introductory Text
OpenStax
Algebra Trigonometry
American Government
Anatomy Physiology
A P Biology
A P College Physics
A P Macroeconomics
A P Microeconomics
Astronomy
Biology
Business Ethics
Business Law1
Calculus Volume1
Calculus Volume2
Calculus Volume3
Chemistry
Chemistry Atoms First
College Algebra
College Physics
College Success
Concepts Of Biology
Economics
Elementary Algebra
Entrepreneurship
Financial Accounting Volume1
Intermediate Algebra
Introduction To Business
Introductory Business Statistics
Introductory Statistics
Macroeconomics
Managerial Accounting Volume2
Microbiology
Microeconomics
Organizational Behavior
Physics Volume1
Physics Volume2
Physics Volume3
Pre- Algebra
Pre- Calculus
Principles Of Management
Psychology
Psychology-2e
Sociology
Statistics High school
U S History
Bay College
English 101
English 102
History 211
History 212
FYE103 Career Exploration
StanfordUniversityPress
American Yawp Volume 1
American Yawp Volume 2
KIC Study System (KSS)
Dramatically improve long-term retention and overall study
effectiveness
using nine study methods derived from powerful digital-age study technologies such
as
ReadAlong Audio, SKIM, custom Flashcards, and HotLinks Study Tools
Manage study effectively using detailed graphical study progress
statistics. Study anywhere, any time. KSS is highly effective on smartphones and
needs only
intermittent internet access.
No Internet? No problem.
MyDocs only uses the internet occasionally, to get new study
material and
synchronize between your devices. Note that MyDocs checks for digital rights
compliance when
internet connection is re-established
KSS is even effective on the small screens of smartphones.
KIC Self-serve Digitization Kiosks
for Students, Researchers, even for Controlled Digital Lending / DRM
A single KIC allows thousands of students and researchers to make
unlimited copies of articles and book excerpts from your print
collections, and keep them forever, with no lending time limits and no
owned-to-loaned requirements. This and its high quality and low prices
explain why KIC digitization systems are on a thousand college
campuses across the US and Canada.
In addition to supporting new high-speed whole book digitization
options that allow thousands of existing KIC systems in academic and research
libraries to easily digitize content at high speeds, KIC systems provide
powerful digital age services such as the ability to reorganize study and
research materials, easily capture and add citations and produce
custom study systems (KSS).
Promote digitize-on-demand to your study and research patrons by
creating a centrally located section of the stacks with your frequently
accessed books and materials, with multiple self-serve digitize-on-demand stations nearby.
The concentration of highly used materials will
also concentrate patrons and create a collective energy that will increase
the apparent value of your print collections. For even greater value, place
your reference and reserves materials nearby.
How Many KICs is Enough?
Overwhelming trend data exists on the number of KICs in use per thousand students. However
the proportions of KICs could rise dramatically as libraries implement modern
HotLinks discovery-enabled concentrated collections areas. Prior to the advent of modern
concentrated
collections areas, the following KIC-to-student ratios are common:
Top ten universities have up to 2 KICs per thousand students, mostly high-end KIC
Bookeye systems
Top 100 universities have up to 1 KIC per thousand students, with more high-end KIC
Bookeye systems than not
Lower ranked universities often have a KIC per two thousand students, with one or few
high-end KICs and the rest, broad mix of KIC models
Two year colleges have up to one KIC for every three thousand students, with one or few
high-end KICs and the rest, broad mix of KIC models
Offer your students and faculty KIC and its powerful, digital age
features
that from a superhighway between your highly valuable print collections and the
digital
world. Composer by KIC is one of many powerful features that are free with any KIC
station
under active maintenance.
Select Clips
Compose Page
Once pages are scanned, KIC automatically selects photos, charts,
and
paragraphs. Users can simply touch and drag to select an area, or just touch a
photo, chart
or paragraph and drag it to the digital clipboard.
Move clips individually from the clipboard to existing pages, or
start a
new blank page. Then design your layout by arranging, rescaling, rotating clips,
and/or
adding annotations, frames and clipart.
Save & Send
Shrink, enlarge, and rotate clips to create any layout. Undo
changes,
remove clips, until your creation is complete. It's digital desktop publishing, easy
as
1-2-3, at your fingertips!
Use KIC's huge touch screen to easily arrange, rescale rotate
clips,
and/or annotations, frames, and clipart.
Then save your results in a variety of file formats and send to
USB,
email, smart device, or cloud.
Scan ISBN on Back of Book and Select Citation Format
APA MLA Chicago IEEE AMA
Include Digital Citation on all clips
Touch & Drag Citation to Page
Create Complete Citation List
Auto-create
POD for gifts, family history...
Bring new patrons to your library with Print On Demand Made
Easy
Make a Family Recipe Book
Create a Book of Your Children's Art & Schoolwork
School Children Can Create Their Own Books Too!
What Kind of Book Do You Want to Make Today?
POD for Scholarly Publishing & Course Materials, Digital Or Print
POD is Print on Demand, and it's never been easier
Print Bound Copies of Your Thesis
KIC's POD (Print on Demand) feature is a self-serve alternative to
the
usual thesis printing/binding vendors, using existing KIC systems offered by the
university
library.
"I can't believe how easy it was to order beautifully printed and
bound
copies of my thesis right from the KIC systems in our library"
Create Course Materials with Excerpts from Many Sources
With Kic in your library, instructors are no longer restricted to
a single
text book. They can freely assign many excerpts from many books without
adding to
the students already high cost of text books.
" I selected excerpts from twelve books and created the text
book i
use for my Civil War class."
KIC Self-Service Scan, Copy, Fax
so much more than copier replacement
KAT Stacks Virtual Stacks Browser
With their subject-ordered call letters, academic libraries are designed for browsing
– but in the digital age, browsing for research or study is becoming a ‘lost art.’
stacks
It is the digital age and your students, faculty and researchers should be able to browse
and
search
your print collections visually wherever they are, 24/7, using their phone, tablet or PC.
Virtual reality technology is replacing traditional text-based
systems everywhere and it’s time for libraries to join in.
KAT Stacks provides a virtuality reality browsing experience that matches the layout of your
library’s
print collections, aisle by aisle, shelf by shelf. It includes:
SIP2 integration with your ILS
Bulk import of MARC records and instant virtual stacks using on-line images of spines
and
covers, and computer generated graphical images
Digital Item checkout via DLSG’s controlled digital lending solution
Expanded shelf view that includes all books, including those in off-site storage, in
reserves and in a high use section for digitizing excerpts
MyDocs only uses the internet occasionally, to get new study
material
and
synchronize between your devices. Note that MyDocs checks for digital rights
compliance
when internet connection is re-established
Note: checkout status of print copies is retrieved from your library's
ILS
via SIP2
Digital Age Browsing 24/7 access to a visually accurate representation of your
stacks,
a virtual world where checked out items are always visible, but are
marked as checked out, and shelves can be digitally expanded to include all items that are in
storage.
Physical Browsing Assistant While browsing the physical stacks, before de-shelving
a
book, the patron can use their phone or tablet to instantly access
bibliographic information, without performing a cumbersome search, simply by touching the spine of
the
book, thus reducing the chance of returning the
book to the wrong place in the shelf.
Re-task Reserves Desk Staff Serve reserves digitally and automatically, and use the
staff time to
fulfill student requests for digital course materials, and
researcher requests for content they find using HotLinks Research Tool and KAT Stacks.
Distribute Course Materials 24/7 Students can enter a key code, browse a
professor’s
recommended reading
list and perform an ILL-style request for
excerpts (<10%), content that is fulfilled in blocks. In 15 minutes, scan the whole book with
bookmarks,
and make available a limited number of copies for
instant download by students that have the key to the professor’s reading list.
An Important Caveat
KAT Stacks currently can only show CGI representations of books in your collections for which the
covers
are accessible, and these representations are
often inaccurate. Accurate representations of book spines is important for several reasons. People
who
are browsing the physical print collections must
be able to easily identify the virtual versions of physical book spines that they might be
interested in
and simply touch the virtual spine to instantly get the
bibliographic record. Also, it can facilitate a positive emotional connection with the print
collections.
To greatly improve KAT Stacks realism, DLSG will soon select a university library partner to capture
digital images of spines of all of the items in its print
collections and match them to the bibliographic records using powerful imaging technologies that
were
developed to serve customers of DLSG’s parent
company, Image Access, Inc.
The Digital Stacks Ecosystem
The Digital Stacks Ecosystem (DSE) represents a new digital age model for maximizing the value of
scholarly content locked in academic and public library print
collections, and maintaining preparedness for the next pandemic. DSE technologies such as BSCAN ILL,
KIC
self-serve digitization kiosks, Opus digitization systems,
enable libraries to use the special “super powers” that copyright law grants them so that students
can scan excerpts and request interlibrary loans freely, without concern for copyright infringement
and enjoy features like searchable text, audio playback, linked highlights, auto-citations, flash
cards, and many other indispensable advantages offered by digital technology.
Some of the Many Problems that DLSG’s Digital Stacks Ecosystem Solves
Problem: Libraries need a distance learning replacement for electronic reserves
–
to
provide faculty specified content to students.
The DSE Solution: Directed Lending AutoLinks – CDL links to content for a
particular
course that can be placed in the university’s learning management system
for access only by students enrolled in that course. The access settings for these CDL AutoLinks
can
be
set with a one-to-one restriction and a lending time limit,
or to match electronic reserves, which do not have either of these limits.
Problem: Many academic library patrons prefer to use their own PCs, tablets
and/or
phones for accessing content digitally when in their library, and copyright
law allows unpublished and out-of-print items to be accessed digitally while in the library.
The DSE Solution: DLSg’s MyDocs library app includes digital fence technology
that
allows content to be viewed only while in the library.
The DSE Solution: The HotLinked Highlights feature built into MyDocs allows
content
that is accessed using MyDocs while in the library to be highlighted, and
MyDocs retains all highlighted text up to an amount that is less that 10% of the entire volume,
or
another percentage that can be specified by the library.
The DSE Solution: Extraordinarily transformative CDL, including search,
highlighting
with navigation and automatic citating, HotLinks, ReadAlong Audio,
computer-assisted speed-reading, very large text display at a user-selectable pace, custom
flashcards
The DSE Solution: Aggregate CDL promotes far greater exposure of copyrighted
content in
the library’s print collections while in the library, and when the user
leaves the library, the user cannot access the content, but has the option to rent or buy the
content.
Note that financially disadvantaged patrons can have all
access they wish, provided they are inside the library.
Problem: Over the past two decades, scholarly monograph publishing has been
very
negatively affected by the reduced value of printed books in the digital age
and the highly controlled (via DRM) electronic books. To realize the intent of the US
Constitution
clause that allows copyright law to exist, something must be
done to improve the value of scholarly monographs to their markets, which are primarily academic
and
research libraries.
The DSE Solution: Aggregate CDL - highly transformative CDL for scholarly
monographs,
with reasonable controls and revenue opportunities for their authors
and publishers.
Empty content. No instructions was given in document
#1 successful research is worth more than all the money in the world.
Research in the physical sciences has made possible computers, phones, the internet, sky scrapers,
jets, space travel, feeding billions more people, clean water, virtually all medical science and
technology and so much more. Research in politics, economics, sociology and other fields has made
possible the government and economic systems that support research and ensure egalitarian access to
the research.
#2 monographs serve a vital purpose that is poorly served by journal articles.
A monograph is like a whole life story, while journal articles are more like a day in the life.
Journal articles represent the 'raw research,' the myriad small data points. Monographs generally
congeal new knowledge from multiple journal articles with commonly accepted knowledge into a more
complete representation. The goal of journal articles is to publish research findings soon after
they occur, usually in a rush. It is because journal articles cover the breaking news of the
sciences and useful arts, monograph authors are able to take more time and focus on maximizing
understanding.
#3 It has been proven a thousand times over that most of the greatest researchers in history are
anomalies - they come from anywhere and everywhere.
It can take millions of people to yield one great scientist that will change the world. It is
entirely unpredictable who might be the next great scientists, and civilization is always making
problems that need solving by the world's greatest minds. So we need to make millions of scientists
and give them the best education possible along with egalitarian access to all the scholarly
knowledge possible and the best research tools to find and harvest the information they need, and
that means a vigorously active monograph publishing industry, and an even more vigorous scholarly
publishing industry.
The Legal Benefits of Printed Content & ‘Librarian Superpowers’
as described by University of Illinois Library
How the law allows libraries to distribute virtually
unlimited numbers of digital copies of printed journal articles and chapters of printed
monographs to patrons that they can keep forever – no checkout time limits and no
digital rights management (DRM), including a review of this comparison chart
How Libraries Might Fill ILL Requests in the Future
Digitization Technologies for Self-serve and Interlibrary Loan –
History and State-of-the-art
DLSG shares its experiences with hundreds of its ILL customers
and a thousand self-serve digitization systems customers, including ILL and self-serve
digitization in the past, present and future, including systems that can fulfill ILL and DDD
requests
How Patrons Might Review Monograph Chapters and Journal Articles
Before Digitizing or Requesting a Digital Copy
Multiply Monographs Utilization with a Revolutionary but Affordable New
Full-text Search-match Discovery System
Full-text search for academic library collections is essential, and
it’s legal. Learn why academic libraries don’t already have it and how it can be implemented quite
inexpensively (via a CCA) along with a revolutionary full-text Search-match facility that finds the
most relevant chapters within monographs – excerpts that patrons can legally keep forever.
Optimizing Library Superpowers (ILL and Self-serve digitization) with
Concentrated Collections Areas
Section 108 represents extraordinary benefits for patrons. By maximally
utilizing Section 108, libraries can justify increased budgets. HotLinks-enabled Concentrated
Collections Areas make searches for relevant content highly fruitful and dramatically reduce the
time to digitize content, thus strongly promoting monographs while minimizing the cost of fulfilling
ILL requests, all while adding an intriguing new dimension to the library experience.
eSeminar: MyDocs and KIC Study System – Kindle® for Academic Library
Patrons
MyDocs Manages Research and Study Content
Demo: MyDocs directly receives and manages content from KIC self-serve digitization systems,
from DLSG’s Digital Document Delivery and ILL system for Monograph excerpts, from OER
sources, and from DLSG’s CDL system
MyDocs’ DRM – Kindle® for Academic Libraries
Demo: Retrieving and managing content from ILL requests ILL content with and without Digital
Rights Management (DRM) and content from DLSG’s CDL (with DRM)
KIC Study System
Demo: ReadAlong Audio, SKIM, Custom Flashcards, and instantly
accessing alternate treatments of content using HotLinks Study Tool
HotLinks Research Tool
Demo: Inputting a journal article into HotLinks Research Tool
and using it to find relevant journal articles
eSeminar: Revolutionary HotLinks Discovery System
Full-text search is undeniably essential for modern discovery, yet Libraries don’t
already have full-text search, despite Federal Judge Chin’s ruling that retaining
content for full-text search is legal
Students, researchers, faculty and scholars need more than typical full-text key word
search and HotLinks Research Tool is a form of full-text search that is far more
effective than key word searches
HotLinks can find specific monograph chapters within books that are the most relevant to
a subject, as defined not by just a few search terms, but by a body of research, an
entire journal article or a chapter of a textbook
The DLSG plan to multiply monograph utilization in several years and double monograph
acquisition budgets in several more years
HotLinks Research Tool is ‘effectively’ an option of DLSG’s KIC self-serve digitization
systems.
The steps for getting HotLinks Research Tool for a reading room, a special collections
area, a reference section, or a new Concentrated Collections Area (CCA)
A HotLinks Research Tool demonstration
Instantly Research Billions of Pages
HotLinks Research Tool leads the way to a whole new era in research, taking dozens of pages
of research as input, characterizing all pages, then in seconds, finding the best matches
from a billion pages of monographs and other scholarly content. HotLinks then lines the
results up for instant access of result after result, one per swipe/click.
Using Your KICs for CDL
Digitize Whole Books, Excerpts, and Articles - Then Export to CDL
Essential Digital Services that U.S Copyright Law Allows
Libraries to Provide
Including copyright law compliant Digital Content Lending
(DCL)
of reserves content by academic libraries to serve distance learning students
DLSG eSeminar Hosts
Library Services that can be provided to distance
learners
These can be provided to distance learners quite
cost-effectively
Digital Course Materials
Course Materials Reserves Support -
Copyright Compliant Digital Content Lending
OER (Open Educational Resources)
ILL & Digital Document Delivery
Study Assistance, Including Remote Access to the Stacks
KIC Study System
Hotlinks Study Tool
KAT Stacks
Maximize Library Superpowers with Modern Concentrated Collections Areas
Why Add Concentrated Collections Areas now?
For many decades, reading rooms, reference sections, journal areas and special collections areas
have been popular areas of the academic library. However, apart from replacing the photocopiers in
these concentrated collections areas with self-serve scanning systems, these areas have not kept up
with the times. They need modern digital discovery, either DLSG’s HotLinks full-text search-match
facility or at minimum, a full-text key term search facility such as what Google Scholar offers,
both of which are in compliance with copyright case law (see Authors Guild v. Google).
In theory, an academic library can get double-digit increases in resource utilization and justify a
multiple percentage budget increase. In fact, total costs can fall well below 1% of an academic
library’s existing budget to place one or even two percent of a library’s print collections in one
or more concentrated collections areas with DLSG’s turnkey solution, including HotLinks and
ultrafast book scanners. These state-of-the-art concentrated collections areas add an intriguing new
dimension and compelling new reasons to visit the library as well as remotely accessing library
resources. Its benefits include:
Highly productive browsing – so much of interest concentrated in a small space
A revolutionary search-match facility that locates the most relevant excerpts
within monographs
Rapid self-serve harvesting – most of the library’s popular books are a few
steps away from the library’s fastest book scanners
Cost-effective ILL for monograph excerpts – library staff can fill up to 10
requests in an hour, a cost that should be easily reimbursable
Eventual full-text search and search-match for your entire print collections –
as other libraries create their concentrated collections areas with books that are in your main
collections
For the library, the lower reshelving costs over the years can finance
a substantial portion of the costs of creating and maintaining your concentrated collections areas.
In addition, DLSG is working on a low cost system for identifying the absence of any book from the
shelves within moments, allowing libraries to rely on patrons to return the books to the shelves for
a further cost reduction.
Unlike traditional Special Collections areas, whose books are usually
selected by topic, age or rarity, these new concentrated collections areas can be comprised of
professors reading lists, researchers’ relevant books and books that have been checked out more than
once in recent years. In addition to making it substantially faster and easier for patron’s to find
a
book and scan an excerpt (see: “Library Superpowers”), it substantially reduces the time to return
the book to the shelf.
For Scholars and Researchers, HotLinks Research Tool provides a
revolutionary
search-match system
that takes up to 100 pages of personal research as input and
instantly matches
it
with
billions of
pages of scholarly content in the print collections of your library
and the
libraries of
other
Digital Stacks Project members. HotLinks instantly finds 100 matches
representing
the
most relevant
content from billions of pages. Researchers are able to find
valuable content
that
they
would never
find with standard search systems.
HotLinks Research Tool results can be
viewed as
‘sample’
pages from the
entire volume
that promote copyrighted content that might otherwise remain
unknown.
For better compliance with the Fair Use section of copyright law,
the library
can
enable
the ability
for researchers to purchase the full content.
Instantly Research Billions of Pages
HotLinks Research Tool leads the way to a whole new era in research, taking
dozens of pages
of
research as input, characterizing all pages, then in seconds, finding the best
matches from
a
billion pages of monographs and other scholarly content. HotLinks then lines the
results up
for
instant access of result after result, one per swipe/click.
Creating a Superior Concentrated Collections Area
The first step in creating a superior concentrated
collections area is compiling a list of frequently accessed monographs and other books.
If your intent is to create one large concentrated collections area (e.g. near a high
traffic area of the main library), then it is likely that you will want to combine
professors’ recommended reading lists with researchers’ relevant monographs lists and
books that have been checked out more than once in the past few years.
The second step is allocating the space, moving the necessary
number of bookshelves and at least one KIC digitization system into that space, then
arranging for DLSG to setup the KIC system for ingesting books into a CCA. Once this has
been done, you are ready to start ingesting books into the area.
The steps to ingesting books into a concentrated collections area:
using DLSG’s CCA ingestion workflow, print a stack of ‘pull sheets’ (not unlike ILL
pull sheets), three or four sheets per work hour
gather each book, insert its pull sheet between any two pages, place it on a wheeled
book cart and when finished, proceed to the KIC station in the concentrated
collections area
Insert a CCA key into the KIC’s USB port
Scan a pull sheet, then scan the book, selecting section and chapter bookmarks while
scanning. If you are using a KIC Bookeye 5, it should take a little over ten minutes
to digitize an entire 300 page book at 300dpi (high image quality)
Press the CCA Export button to post the search-match metadata to the HotLinks system
and optionally post a searchable PDF of the book to a secure search system such as a
DSE Content Server from DLSG. Note that if posted to a DSE Content Server, the
content can be lent using DLSG’s stransformative CDL+ system during pandemics or
perhaps anytime).
Place the book on a CCA shelf.
Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 until finished scanning all books on the cart.
Repeat steps 1 through 7 until all books have been ingested.
At any time after the first books have been ingested, you can try out DLSG’s HotLinks
Search-Match function.
Maintaining a Superior Concentrated Collections Area
Maintaining a CCA is simple. Simply add books in the same way that you initially
ingested the books. If you wish to return a book from the CCA to the stacks or remove it
to offsite storage, simply enter the book information into the CCA-enabled KIC station.
Rescue Monograph Publishing,
Get a Budget Increase and Help Turn
Monograph Publishing back into a Vibrantly Growing Industry
Well-written monographs by leading researchers, scholars and professors are grossly undervalued.
This can be proven rather easily and affordably, providing academic and research libraries with
compelling justification for substantial budget increases for monographs. In addition, libraries can
further support monograph authoring and publishing and receive high value concessions from the
copyrights holders by promoting and optionally enabling direct purchase of monographs.
Increase Demand for ILL and Digital Document Deliver for Monographs
Implement DLSG’s HotLinks, the revolutionary new search-match facility that finds the 100 most
relevant chapters within all monographs in your library in an instant. This result cannot be
achieved
with simple full-text search of a few key terms (e.g. Google Scholar®), but instead, requires large
amounts of content as input. This requirement serendipitously fits perfectly with ways that
researchers conduct research and ways that students study. Nothing better characterizes a research
topic than the text the researcher has accumulated over the months and years. For students, the text
of one or several chapters currently being studied is a definitive characterization of the study
topic.
Get Budget Increases
Provide reports to funding authorities showing increased use of monograph resources, and request
monograph acquisition budget increases that represent a higher value (better cost-benefit ratio)
than many larger expenditures the university or research institute makes. If high quality print
monographs are used frequently and effectively, this investment is a bargain when compared with many
of the university’s much larger budget items. As an example, doubling library monograph expenditures
is only about 0.01%, or one ten thousandth of a typical R1 or R2 university’s budget. The resulting
improvements in education and research are certainly worth far more. Having just half of R1 and R2
libraries gradually increase monograph purchases by 10% per year for 10 years would provide top
researchers and scholars with confidence that the long and arduous process of writing a high-quality
monograph would not go unrewarded, thus creating a vibrantly growing monograph publishing industry.
In addition, monograph usage may increase so substantially that funding from sources outside the
university or research institute may become available.
In addition, DLSG’s system promotes purchases of monographs and optionally supports
direct purchase
of digital content for distribution using DLSG’s digital rights management system (DRM), if this
feature is enabled by the library. A student, faculty member, researcher or scholar may wish to
purchase a particular monograph found using DLSG’s revolutionary search-match facility, either
because their library doesn’t have the monograph or because they want instant and permanent access
to the entire volume forever.
The Best Solution: Search-match Enabled Concentrated Collections Areas
A great solution must be affordable and if possible, a variation of a proven strategy. Academic
Libraries have had concentrated collections areas for more than a century. Examples of traditional
CCAs are reading rooms, reference sections and special collections areas. In the 1960s and 1970s,
these traditional CCAs were modernized by adding photocopiers. CCAs were brought [partly] into the
digital age when their copiers were replaced with self-serve book digitization kiosks, over 90% of
which are KIC systems from DLSG.
To fully complete the transition into the digital age, existing CCAs could be enhanced with
full-text search, but something far superior is available. Rather than simply adding full-text
search, existing CCAs can be dramatically enhanced with DLSG’s revolutionary new HotLinks full-text
search-match facility.
The best solution may be a completely new CCA. While enhancing an existing CCA doesn’t require
reorganizing to create a new special space, creating the space for a new CCA that contains items
from your print collections that are most likely to be accessed, high value items that can be found
using DLSG’s HotLinks full-text search-match facility. The best choices for high use items is
probably a combination of professors’ recommended reading lists, researchers’ relevant monographs
lists and books that have been checked out more than once in the past few years. This new breed of
CCA offers great benefits to students, faculty, researchers and scholars, including:
For course materials – including whole books and making them full-text search-matchable and
steps away from a very fast self-serve digitization kiosk (Note: during pandemics, DLSG’s CDL
solution supports controlled distribution of digital course materials)
For professors’ recommended reading lists – including all books, not just the most important
ones that are put on reserves, making them full-text search-matchable and steps away from a very
fast self-serve digitization kiosk provides a far greater value than the reserves desk
For researchers – just ask how much value they would place on being able to full-text
search-match all of the monographs in your print collections that they consider to be highly
relevant for their topic of research, and being able to make several ‘ILL’ (digital document
delivery) requests per month for PDFs of chapters from their chosen monographs (note: this
feature is supported by DLSG’s request-fulfillment workflow, which is fulfillable at around 10
chapter requests per hour using a fast new KIC system, enabled only if the library chooses, and
has extensive limiting controls to avoid work overload)
For general use of your main print collections – this provides full-text search and search-match
for what is arguably the vast majority of the items in your collections that patrons would like
to search and search-match, and it also shortens the walk to the highest quality and fastest KIC
systems in your library
With HotLinks’ optional random access to a digital sampling of pages in the chapter, users need
not depend on short bibliographic records that represent a 300 to 500 page book, but instead,
can sample some pages and self-determine their interest level (Note that this optional feature
emulates browsing books and leafing through the pages by book store patrons, and is considered
to be supported implicitly but not explicitly by copyright law, with one potential caveat – the
users should be able to purchase books that they find and like – see the next section on
optional support for purchasing content)
Due to all of these wonderful benefits, monograph utilization will likely rise quite
substantially and provide the best possible argument for budget increases
And finally, your extra spending on scholarly monographs will help motivate top researchers and
scholars to write more monographs
Note that just a few thousand books from your main collections can provide all of the above
benefits. A full-text search-match enabled Concentrated Collections Area (CCA) will
effectively digitally
enable most of an academic library’s print collections, legally and for very little cost. It
achieves all of these objectives by:
not requiring the purchase of any new digital licenses
not requiring the purchase of new digitization hardware – the CCA option can be added to one of
your existing KIC self-serve digitization system
concentrating a carefully selected 1-2% of your print collections into a small area with a fast
self-serve digitization system nearby, items that are most likely to be used repeatedly –
professors’ recommended reading lists, researchers’ relevant monographs list, and books that
have been checked out more than once in the past few years
Providing the revolutionary new HotLinks full-text search-match discovery facility for these
items and capturing from each selected item, the metadata necessary for HotLinks – two to four
books per hour can be processed into the CCA
Providing ILL services (digital document delivery) – DLSG offers a workflow system that can
fulfill ten or more requests for chapters per hour, and it has extensive throttle controls to
keep costs within budget
DLSG’s turnkey HotLink-enabled CCA systems are easy to setup. The biggest job is allocating the
space for the CCA, including the bookshelves that will hold a few thousand books. Here are the
steps.
allocate the space
request recommended reading lists from professors and relevant monographs lists from researchers
– you don’t need many respondents to get started. Early results will convince most of the rest
of the professors and researchers that it is worth their time
provision the area with an existing KIC self-serve digitization kiosks or buy the latest model,
the fastest high-quality book scanner on the market
Install the CCA and KIC ILL/DDD workflow options on the KIC system.
Begin ingesting the selected items
The system is ready to use as soon as a sufficient number of items has been ingested.
A full-text search-match enabled CCA provides quick and substantial benefit to the
patrons of
individual libraries. Usage reports showing substantially increased use of monographs offer
compelling rationale for budget increases.
In addition, as the number of libraries setting up these modern CCAs increase, and if these
libraries procure increasing numbers of monographs, top researchers and scholars will be more
motivated to write high-quality monographs, which will stimulate monograph publishing.
Negotiating Better Deals with the Publishers with an Optional [ BUY ] Button
Interestingly, a rent/buy button is also a requirement for Fair Use
Among the concessions that copyrights holders could be very willing to make is to explicitly give
your library the right to show users large samplings of digital pages of the chapters they found
using HotLinks. The copyrights holders may require that the sample pages be randomly selected, but
even so, these sample pages can uses to determine the quality and relevance of a chapter of a book
or a n entire book, which is very valuable. Having confidence that a particular monograph is of
sufficient quality and relevance can be used to promote 1) more ILL requests, which provides
rationale for library budget increases; and 2) instant sales, for example, when instant permanent
access to an entire volume is cost-justified. This will in turn promote more writing and publishing
of high-quality monographs, which is exactly in line with the constitutional clause that allows
copyright law to exist.
Note that DLSG’s solution finds content in excerpt size blocks that can legally be requested and
fulfilled via the library’s ILL services, so the random sample percentage can be set as high as 50%
or whatever percentage ensures that most users will need to make a formal ILL request or will simply
opt to purchase or rent the content, which is another DLSG-provided capability.
Alternately, the publisher can agree to an Aggregate CDL deal that allows libraries to display all
of the content while the user is in the library.
Supercharging Study
Knowledge Imaging Centers
Knowledge Imaging Centers – high-speed self-serve digitization kiosks for the library
floor
and small satellite extensions of the library that provide:
Fast digitization of homework assignments
For electronic submission to faculty
Self-serve distribution of course materials
Can be part of a Concentrated Collections Area
Digital harvesting of print collections content
Best when used with HotLinks-enabled Concentrated Collections Areas
Capture of Textbook Chapters for use with MyDocs and KSS
In addition to regular PDF and JPEG files, KIC outputs content in KSS format
Support for Modern Concentrated Collections Areas (CCAs)
The only technology needed to create a fully functional CCA
Modern Concentrated Collection Areas
Modern Concentrated Collection Areas maximally utilize Copyright Act Section 108 by
gathering the small percentage of a library’s print collection that is most likely to be
accessed, for example, faculty recommended reading lists, books that have been checked out
more than once in the past few years, and researchers’ relevant books lists. Large print
collections are necessary for research and high-quality education, but typically only a 1-3%
of items are accessed frequently. The substantial benefits of CCAs include:
HotLinks search-match facility
All books and monographs in a CCA are full-text search-matchable
a student can instantly search the entire CCA instantly at any time for
relevant material while studying a textbook or other faculty-assigned
materials using MyDocs with KSS
a faculty member can input existing course materials, search-match the
materials with all content in the CCA and augment the course materials
with relevant content from the CCA
Concentrated browsing
Highly efficient and therefore highly valuable
Close Proximity to a KIC
All books and monographs in the CCA are five to ten steps away from a KIC high-speed book digitization kiosk
ILL of monograph excerpts is finally viable
Up to 10 requests per hour can be fulfilled by a single worker, and HotLinks finds
excerpts within books. Copyright Act Section 108 allows permanent distribution
of individual journal articles and small books excerpts (a library ‘superpower’). ILL for journal articles is well-supported because each article has its own citation
that can be searched in databases such as WorldCat, but until now there has been
no way to find a specific excerpt in a book such as one or two specific chapters
without long, tedious sessions of browsing the main print collections
MyDocs with KIC Study System (KSS)
The most complete and powerful library app today
Organizes study materials that are
Scanned at the library (e.g. using a KIC)
course materials
textbook chapters
print collections content
Distributed electronically by the library
course materials
ILL and digital document delivery requests
Borrowed with digital rights management (i.e. CDL)
Downloaded for free (OER)
Provides Kindle®-like digital rights management for copyrighted library materials
Research-enables all content that it manages with HotLinks Research Tool
Includes proven study-enhancing tools:
KSS ReadAlong Audio
Instantly makes ‘audio tapes’ with the option to read along
KSS SKIM
Computer-assisted reading that works equally well on phones and PCs
Slow SKIM provides eye-strain free reading on small smartphones
screens
Fast SKIM for quick review before a thorough study session
KSS Flashcards
easy to create for study and self-test
HotLinks Study Tool
instantly provides alternate treatments of relevant study materials (OER)
Study Progress Graphic
an ever-present study coach
Features
Advantages
ReadAlong Audio
(3 Study Methods)
Reading while listening is well known to significantly improve
retention. In addition, users can also use just the audio or read normally without
audio.
Highlighting with FlashCards
(3 Study Methods)
Students are able to highlight their own private digital copy
without
defacing a textbook that they don't own, and instead of simply highlighting
important
text, KSS makes flashcards that can be used for easy review, and quiz themselves on
the
highlighted points. Note that frequent quizzes are well know to improve retention.
SKIM
(2 Study Methods)
This feature can be used in two modes: 1) at high speed (e.g.
400-600
words per minute), for pre-reading a paragraph or two just prior to ReadAlong Audio,
for
reviewing just before a test, or for looking for some particular information that
the
student hasn't been able to find by searching; and 2) at normal reading speed (e.g.
at
120-400 words per minute) for more comfortable reading on the small screen of a
smart
phone.
Study Progress Monitoring
This features shows how much of the study material has been covered once, twice or
more
using ReadAlong Audio, Skim and the study mode of Flashcards. In addition, it shows
the
results of the one and multiple flashcard quizzes.
Study Dashboard
This feature shows study progress summary information for each course that is in
progress, allowing students to better allocate their study time between courses.
Small Smart Phone Support
KSS intelligently reflows text, pictures , diagrams, etc. for surprisingly effective
studying experience on small smart phones. MyDocs Personal Network can automatically
transfer study materials between Phone, Tablet and PC.
Personal Network
Once in their phone, KSS packets can be automatically transferred to the students'
tablet and PC for seamless switching between devices for optimal study
effectiveness.
Instant Access to Research
HotLinks Research Tool – Once a researcher inputs dozens of pages of personal
research as well
as journal articles, etc., into a KIC digitization system at the library and outputs
KSS packets
to MyDocs, he/she is a few touches and screen swipes away from instant access to up
to 100 pages
of the most relevant content in the HotLinks and DSE Content Server systems.
Instant Access to Alternate Study Materials
HotLinks Study Tool – Students that use KIC digitization systems at the library to
digitize a
textbook chapter and output a KSS packet to MyDocs can touch and swipe to the most
relevant
alternate study materials from a million pages of Open Educational Resources, or
from all
monographs in the HotLinks and DSE Content Server systems.
Facilitating Faculty
KIC self-serve digitization systems allow faculty to input their existing course
materials, add
textbook chapters and/or journal articles or other relevant content into KIC,
output it all to
MyDocs with KIC Study System and use HotLinks Research Tool to
search-match concentrated collections
areas (CCAs) and instantly find the most relevant chapters in all relevant monographs in the CCAs. A
quick review of the top ten or twenty monographs can reveal content that can significantly improve
the quality, breadth and depth of existing course materials or make quick work of creating entirely
new course materials.
The updated or newly created course materials can either be sent to the library’s reserves desk for
distribution of digital copies to students, or the book and chapter information can be provided
to students, allowing them to visit the library’s CCA and quickly digitize excerpts from books using
a KIC self-serve digitization system.
With KIC Composer, a feature of KIC self-serve digitization systems, faculty can easily recompose
course materials by adding, removing and reorganizing content with a large touch screen and a large,
visual ‘clipboard’.
Redefining/Reinventing Research
Using state-of-the-art technology, researchers can instantly build ‘mind palaces’ comprised of their
own research materials, content from the library and open access content, and highlight selected
content for instant hyperlinking.
DLSG has built its HotLinks system to work within existing copyrights laws and without any special
agreements with copyrights holders. However, DLSG works for libraries, and that is no more evident
than here – DLSG has built features into this system in anticipation of some likely copyrights law
changes and to help facilitate those changes being adopted. DLSG has also built features into this
system to entice publishers to agree to allow full access to monograph content while in the library
and random pages of chapters while not in the library.
The US copyright office has created a Section 108 study group to
recommend changes, and one likely change is to allow digital access to full content while in the
library and digital access to small random samples of content, provided the library implements
policies to avoid negative impact on copyrights holders revenue. The benefits of these section 108
changes to researchers and graduate students are so substantial that DLSG preemptively added support
for them.
Alternately, and to avoid waiting for changes to copyright law, DLSG
has implemented features that can compel a publisher to agree to a system of Aggregate CDL, allowing
libraries to lend digitally (via DLSG’s transformative CDL+), all content purchased from that
publisher in an aggregate one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio.
Innovating Innovation
Hello,
I’m Ted Webb, CEO and chief innovator at Image Access and DLSG. Innovation is my greatest
passion
and I am committed to using innovative technologies to maximize the innovative potential of
others.
My working definition of innovation is: changes to products, services, systems and processes
that
have never been done before and that improve people’s lives, as well as repeatable solutions to
common problems that have never been done before and improve people’s lives.
Many of the most far-reaching innovations are based on PhD-level
scientific research. My favorite example of how world-changing PhD-level scientific research can
be
is on how chemistry prevented mass starvation. In the late 19th century, the world was beginning
to
run out of the fertilizer it needed to feed its people. Some countries had even begun to sail
halfway around the world to collect the last big supplies of guano, scientific discovery made it
possible to manufacture unlimited amounts of fertilizer. The discovery of chemistry led to the
discovery of nitrates, the most essential ingredient in fertilizer. Chemistry also supported the
scientific innovation of a method of creating nitrates from air, and the engineering innovation
that
made nitrates producible in factories in virtually unlimited quantities.
Good monographs are grossly underappreciated and underutilized.
DLSG is
probably in the best position to provide full-text digital discovery and integrated digital
access
to monograph print collections – over 90% of ILL and self-serve digitization at US universities
is
done using DLSG technologies. In addition, DLSG has the capacity to develop sophisticated and
highly
innovative discovery algorithms that go beyond standard search algorithms. As such, my
commitment to
improving innovation compels me to apply DLSG’s substantial assets and resources to create
innovative new technologies that maximize utilization of monographs by professors, faculty and
students.
Over the past six years, DLSG has invested a quarter of a million software development
professional
hours (125 years) to develop the Digital Stacks Ecosystem (DSE). When COVID hit and distance
learning was an emergency need and many libraries were asking for controlled digital lending,
DLSG
postponed the release of its DSE to develop a CDL system. DLSG’s highly transformative CDL+
solution
has been available since spring of 2021, although refinements continue even now. DLSG is now
rolling
out turnkey Concentrated Collections Areas, arguably the highest value, lowest cost strategy for
maximizing utilization of monograph print collections.
In addition to improving innovation in others, I have a short list
of
big innovations that I am intent on pursuing. However, as I have remained dedicated to serving
academic libraries for the past 17 years, I will continue my commitment until the $50+ billion
in
content licenses locked in library print collections are leveraged as completely into the
digital
age as copyright laws will allow.
Sincerely,
Ted Webb, CEO Image Access,
Inc. / DLSG
Overview
Customers Served
Student Patrons
Digital submission of printed homework, self-serve digitization of course materials,
digital harvesting of print collections content, study tools for textbook content, and
modern concentrated collections areas
Faculty Patrons
Creation and updating of course materials using HotLinks revolutionary full-text
search-match discovery to derive maximum benefit from library collections, and modern
Hotlinks discovery-enabled concentrated collections areas
Research Patrons
HotLinks revolutionary full-text search-match discovery derives maximum benefit from
library collections
Academic Libraries
Dramatically improve monograph collections utilization while freeing up space for
[collaborative] study and justifying budget increases that easily cover the costs of the
new services; and improve stacks maintenance efficiency
Public Libraries
Offer state-of-the-art study tools to student patrons and state-of-the-art research
tools to scholars while providing digital age copier replacements to all patrons
Modern HotLinks-enabled Concentrated Collections Areas (CCAs) that dramatically improve
print collections utilization and bring exciting new dimension to the library
Revolutionary New Discovery
Designed especially for students, faculty and researchers, HotLinks takes entire
chapters and dozens of pages of research and journal articles as input and performs
full-text search-matches on a billion content pages in seconds
Controlled Digital Lending (CDL)
Supporting legal uses today and ready for pending updates to copyright law
Digital Stacks Ecosystem
The comprehensive hybrid library solution that maximizes print collections value in the
digital age
Image Access and DLSG
History
In 1993, founded as a digitization technology provider
In 1998, sold first Bookeye book scanner
In 2004-2005, released KIC, BSCAN ILL & Opus
In 2005, formed the DLSG division of Image Access
By 2015, DLSG serves half of students at US universities
2015-2021 invested 250,000 hours to develop DSE
2020-2021 developed CDL+ as requested by libraries
In 2022, released turnkey Concentrated Collections Areas (CCAs)
DLSG is Your Best Value
unmatched reputation for great products and services, and modest prices, favoring value
over profits – DLSG averaged 3% profits for 15 years
Most Libraries Choose DLSG
DLSG’s entirely merit-based success is undisputable – 80-95% market shares for its
self-serve, ILL and Opus digitization products without help from ‘influential friends’
Maximizing Print Collections Value
DLSG is dedicated to maximizing print collections value, especially for monographs,
which have become grossly underappreciated
Innovation is in Our DNA
Over the past 30 years, while university budgets have risen dramatically, library shares
fell from around 3% to 1.5% today. Libraries have the content, but they need DLSG’s
transformative innovations to digitally supercharge that content and restore their value
to the university.
A Four Part Plan for US Academic Libraries
to Restore Budget Shares to 1982 Levels (from 1.5% to 3.7%)
Academic libraries are typically large facilities located in the center of campus and are often very
beautiful. For as long as students have reasons to attend a physical university campus, its library should
play multiple important [digital age] roles in their learning experience. Academic libraries need a digital
age transformation, which require additional funds.
Part One – Justify $100,000+ in Budget Increases to Fund Advanced New Library Technologies
Getting budget increases is seldom easy, but in this case, it is rational – university leaders are agreeing
every year to big publisher subscriptions fees, albeit reluctantly. It is easy to justify $2 per page as the
value your patrons receive from your BSCAN ILL and KIC systems, and this can justify significant budget
increases. For example, KIC self-serve digitization systems typically produce 10,000 to 50,000 digital pages
per year but cost less than $5,000 per year.
It is with great pleasure that DLSG offers libraries its new KIC Usage Reports. Please take a look at these
examples of real usage reports that have been redacted for respect for privacy.
Example KIC Usage Reports
Impressive KIC and BSCAN ILL usage reports combined with a realistic plan to significantly increase the
value of your beautiful, centrally located library, university funding authorities might just breathe a sigh
of relief as they approve additional funds.
Complete Digital Age Action Plan for Helping
Academic Libraries Again Earn 3.7% of their Universities’ Budgets
Part Two – increase the amount of copyrighted content your patrons receive by 10%, 20%,
even 30%, by providing
superior 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery with Personal Digital Mind Palace for your print
collections
instant ILL requests from within the 2D discovery system, with fulfillment directly into your
patrons’ own Personal Digital Mind Palace
easy import from KIC self-serve digitization systems directly into your patrons’ own Personal
Digital Mind Palace
Info Kiosks that directly promote substantially greater utilization of your print collections:
More ILL and self-serve digitization of your print collections, and
More direct access to your print collections using DLSG’s instant Digital Fence.
More use of KIC Study System with ReadAlong Audio, computer-assisted speed-reading (SKIM),
custom flash cards and personal study coach
Frequent use of your superior 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery and Personal Digital Mind
Palace
Part Three – Provide superior 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery with all of the above
features for your subscriptions-based digital content
Part Four – Provide superior 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery with all of the above
features for copyrighted content that is neither in your library nor accessible via your digital
subscriptions.
For many decades, physical card catalogs were an essential part of the library. Scholarly discovery advanced
tremendously with digital card catalogs and journal article abstract search systems such as WorldCat. It’s
not surprising that many researchers and librarians thought that it couldn’t get better than that. Then in
2004,
scholarly discovery made another tremendous advancement with full-text search of scholarly content, and
again, many thought it couldn’t get better.
Yet full-text search has a fundamental limitation – it takes only a few key terms as input. Researchers
typically create and acquire hundreds, even thousands of pages of content relevant to their research over
months and years. In addition, college students are assigned hundreds of pages of relevant study materials
at the beginning of each semester.
The next generation discovery system must be able to accept hundreds of pages of content as ‘search’ input.
In the past year, two tremendous new discovery technologies became available, ChatGPT and HotLinks Research
Tool, and both of these technologies can take many pages of content as input. HotLinks was built for
scholarly research and study and can take hundreds of pages of research or study materials as input, and
ChatGPT can also take many pages as input. From that point forward, these two systems differ greatly.
ChatGPT can create multiple pages of text output and can even create images.
HotLinks exists to serve researchers and college students and as such, does not draw conclusions, leaving that to its users.
The following three diagrams compare Full-text search, ChatGPT and HotLinks.
Student
Derives his/her
Own Conslusions
from HotLinks
Discovery Technologies Comparison Chart
Discovery Technologies Comparison Chart
Full-Text Search
Artificial Intelligence
HotLinks 2D SearchMATCH
Support for simple key term search/discovery
YES
YES
YES
Input of 100+ pages (beyond simple key terms)
NO
YES
YES
Correlation 100+ pages of input with billions of pages of scholarly research
NO
YES
YES
Instant access to subscription-based content (when on-campus)
NO*
N/A
YES
Deterministic algorithms that do not obscure findings from researchers and instead, allow
researchers to draw their own conclusions
YES
NO
YES
Publisher-power agnostic (does not increase dependency on publishers)
NO
Unknown
YES
Integrated with Personal Digital Mind Palace
NO
NO
YES
Inside HotLinks 2D Full-text SearchMATCH Discovery System
HotLinks extracts thousands of key terms from the input material, including textbook chapters, course
materials, etc., and performs a search on each of the thousands of key terms. The thousands of results for
each of the thousands of search terms are then fed into the HotLinks matching system, which finds the
best matches with the input material and sorts those matches by relevance to the source materials. The
diagram below illustrates the process.
Note: HotLinks comes preloaded with five million Open Access journal articles and 16,000 Open Access
monographs and books, and is ready to connect with your institution’s subscription-based content servers.
DLSG’s Personal Digital Mind Palace allows student to highlight relevant content in hundreds of HotLinks
SearchMATCH results. In the same and future sessions, navigating between all of the relevant content found
in HotLinked journal articles and monograph/book chapters is instant –simply selecting a highlight instantly
displays the highlight in the context of the journal article or monograph/book chapter containing it.
In addition, at any time, a student can output the highlighted content with citations to the source
documents, eliminating the tedium from that process.
A Special Message for R1 and R2 Academic Libraries
Over 40 Years, These Libraries Lost nearly $10 Billion in Budget Share
In 1982, R1 and R2 academic libraries earned 3.7% of their universities’ budgets. DLSG plans to restore
most of that 3.7% – DLSG has invested 300,000 engineering professional hours over eight years to
create transformative new library technologies, and plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars more.
For academic libraries, declining relevance in the digital age, not publisher profits, is the main cause of declining budget share.
Only one library technologies vendor could have invented technologies that can restore relevance in the digital age to 1982 levels of nearly 4% of university budgets.
That vendor, DLSG, did not begin to envision the necessary technologies until 2015, after much research and learning.
DLSG was also unaware until recently of the essential need for usage reports for its copyright law exceptions technologies, BSCAN ILL and KIC.
Fortunately, after eight years investing 300,000 engineering professional hours, transformative solutions and reporting are both available.
From the beginning of this decline (in budget percentage) until the release in 2023 of major portions of DLSG’s Digital Stacks Ecosystem (DSE), neither any other vendor nor any academic libraries or their advisors (e.g. ALA, ACRL, ARL, etc.) have solved this existential problem of declining relevance.
This is because it requires so much expertise in so many disparate areas and budgets that support experimentation, specifically:
Commercial business practices of publishers as well as free markets and monopolies in the digital age
Copyright laws with their critically important exceptions were written to both protect and restrict commercial activity.
Hence, to truly understand copyright law, the publishers and their business models must be thoroughly understood. For example, basic CDL is highly automated, entirely unrestricted, and entirely absent the controls necessary to ensure that libraries are not
able to destroy the publishing industry simply by using CDL whenever possible – with extensive CDL adoption, all the people of the world are simply a library card away from never buying another book. The digital world is full of unintended consequences.
The applicable parts of copyright law
The copyright lawmakers provided for three major alternatives to buying from publishers, most notably, sections 108(d), 108(f) and 109(c). Perhaps the lawmakers anticipated today’s monopolies and their unjustifiable price increases.
To fully understand these copyright law exceptions requires more than familiarity with the law.
Academic library operations and resources
and how their patrons use them.
The applicable technologies
The rapid advance and divergence of new technologies are the foundations of the digital future of humanity.
It is entirely necessary and by far the greatest challenge for library leaders and their advisors to have the maximum possible understanding of our digital future.
Visionary abilities
Sufficient abilities to envision new technologies that will increase library relevance far into the digital
future in ways heretofore unthought of, and that are best suited for use in the library.
Financial support for experimentation
Even the best visionaries sometimes fail.
High tech venture capitalists typically expect one in ten or even one in twenty investments to make it big.
In 2004, when DLSG was founded to provide advanced technologies to academic libraries, it had only two of the above assets: raw visionary abilities and some exceptional engineering resources.
DLSG’s parent company, Image Access, had a sister company, Image Access Europe, that had just released its 2nd generation Bookeye planetary digitization machines. These book scanners proved to be better than scanners costing three times as much at that time,
giving DLSG the impetus to invest every asset it had into making digitization systems for ILL, self-serve, and preservation.
Over the ensuing 11 years providing superior digitization technologies for digital preservation as well as self-serve and ILL digitization, DLSG gained a thorough understanding of library operations and the applicable parts of copyright law. Although it had more to learn, DLSG could see that no technologies existed to transform libraries into vibrant digital-age knowledge and information providing institutions that facilitate research and study in advanced new ways.
Academic libraries were particularly negatively affected –R1 and R2 libraries had fallen below 2% of their universities’ budgets from a high of nearly 4%!
Academic and public libraries were simply adding services that had nothing to do with their massive investments in content, most importantly, their scholarly content.
Among academic libraries, some were integrating with Google Scholar, and some were making deals with aggregators such as EBSCO.
However, the additional value is not nearly enough to increase budgets substantially.
DLSG understood the full extent of the problem, saw the great value that a large building in the middle of campus, filled with paid-for scholarly content and professional facilitators of study and research, and concluded that the concept of academic libraries as ‘Knowledge Central’ for universities simply needs to be digitally enabled, completely digitally enabled.
Fortunately, copyright law exceptions provide a major benefit to libraries,
and they simply must utilize them as fully as publishers utilize the parts of the law that supports them, all as intended by the copyright law authors.
In addition, with the right technologies, academic libraries can facilitate study and research today in ways that were impossible until very recently.
Hyper-fast CPUs, NAND memories, six-foot-tall touch displays, and other new technologies have only become available in the past eight years.
Six-foot-tall touch displays are particularly interesting – they are so big that the overwhelmingly best location for them on campus is the library.
In 2015, equipped with a solid understanding of academic library operations and resources, the applicable parts of copyright law, free markets and monopolies in the digital age, an extensive knowledge of most modern digital technologies, proven visionary abilities, very highly capable teams of software developers, and enough conviction to invest over 300,000 engineering professional hours with no purchase guarantees from any university, DLSG began designing and developing an extensive suite of digital age library services. DLSG has also recently learned much about the commercial business practices of the biggest scholarly publishers.
DLSG’s new technologies include:
MyDocs free app for PCs, tablets and phones that can be downloaded from Windows, Android and Apple sites, manages study and research content with a personal network that works without the need for internet access once the content has been loaded
KIC Study System, a part of MyDocs that includes ReadAlong Audio, computer-assisted speed reading (SKIM), custom flash cards, and a personal study coach
HotLinks 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery, preloaded with 16,000 OER books for students and 5 million Open Access Journal Articles for researchers, and compatible with your scholarly publisher content servers
Personal Digital Mind Palace, which allows students and researchers to interconnect 199+ pages of their study content or personal research with millions of books and monographs and 100+ million journal articles.
HotLinks and Mind Palace Collaboration System, comprising five to ten or more six-foot-tall floor-standing touch displays
Concentrated Collections Areas, that can ingest up to five books per hour per worker into HotLinks, and support HotLinks 2D full-text SearchMATCH discovery, allowing discovery at the book chapter level.
CDL+, a transformative form of CDL that is potentially legal and certainly more legal than basic CDL, and can be used during the next pandemic, when publishers may again allow distribution of copyrighted content, provided access is time-limited and copy-protected.
DLSG is ready to begin installing trials and it is time for academic libraries to learn thoroughly the merits of these new technologies firsthand. When considering whether to investigate asap or to wait for others to investigate, please consider the following:
No other maker of library services technologies has ever invested so much in support of a growing future for academic libraries.
For the first 15 years serving academic libraries, Image Access (and DLSG) profits averaged 3% - ever the optimists, DLSG always believed that adoption would eventually pick up pace, like it did for PC labs and ‘Internet Cafes.’ So DLSG stuck with low prices (and very low profits), and eventually, 70% of academic libraries (90% by budget) became customers, proving that DLSG had the right products all along.
DLSG admits to not knowing how to present new technologies to academic libraries. Five years after the first dozen universities had purchased the first KIC Bookeye self-serve digitization systems, nearly half of the top 100 academic libraries had purchased some KICs, and lines of students waiting to use KIC were not uncommon, yet many academic librarians were still asking “Would students use this machine?” After another five years, 90% of universities (by budget) had adopted KIC, making it even more difficult to understand how so many libraries were unaware of the popularity of KIC with students five years into its successful adoption.
When DLSG was founded (without high-tech venture capital), it was unknown to academic libraries. Yet its KIC, BSCAN ILL, Opus and Bookeye products eventually became preferred by 80-95% of academic libraries.
DLSG strongly believes that partnering with academic libraries is the best way to serve society, but after such a substantial investment, DLSG cannot afford to be as patient this time as it was from 2005 through 2015 with its KIC, BSCAN ILL and Opus products.
You can begin a dialogue with DLSG by contacting our Customer Support, Technical Services or Sales departments at any time, by email or by phone.
The U.S. Patent Office’s Section 108 Study Group has been working for 20 years and has not come to
an
agreement. Perhaps it’s time for a
new approach. DLSG’s answer, Aggregate CDL serves copyrights holders and libraries, but most of all,
citizens at large.
The U.S. Constitution allows copyright law to exist for the sole purpose of promoting the authoring and publishing of works that
benefit society. And while many scholarly monographs are created to fill the “publish or perish”
directive, scholarly monographs are important
and sometimes essential facilitators of the development of new science and technology, and to
improve
the human condition. However, over
the past 20 years, monograph publishing rates have declined significantly.
DLSG’s Aggregate CDL is designed to expose researchers and students to vastly more relevant content
from
scholarly monographs while in the
library. And when not in the library, the user is given the opportunity to rent or buy the content,
presumably using department or personal funds
This provides the revenue impetus authors and publishers need to write and publish more monographs,
without using library funds. And once
Aggregate CDL is setup, the ‘in the library’ requirement can be relaxed from the first day of the
next
pandemic, and ended when the institution
deems appropriate.
DLSG’s Aggregate CDL system includes HotLinks Research Tool, which allows the user to input entire
research papers for the system to
characterize and perform DLSG’s exclusive search and match function and provide instant access to
100 of the most relevant items from your
library, and highlight important content. When the user leaves the library, the content is not
accessible, but the highlights are retained, up to
10% of the content of each volume reviewed. The user can access the content while not in the
library, if desired, by simply renting or buying the
desired content. Upon returning to the library, the content is again visible, with the highlights.
The highlights can also be output in an editable
format with source citations
In summary, DLSG’s Aggregate CDL:
Provides a revolutionary new method of discovery and analysis designed specifically for
researchers
and students, a method that instantly
exposes them to large numbers of relevant print collections items
Provides full access to all content of all copyrighted items in the library’s print collections,
while in the library
Strongly promotes the library as an extremely effective research center
Promotes the purchase or rental of copyrighted content when not in the library for those who can
afford it, and as a consequence, promotes
the authoring and publishing of more scholarly monographs, not just for credentialing the
author,
but to advance science, technology and the
human condition.
Basic CDL versus Aggregate CDL Diagram 1
Basic CDL
1-to-1 Lending – students must wait
Aggregate CDL
1-to-Many Lending – no waiting
Basic CDL has a simple one-to-one owned-to-loaned
ratio requirement. If the library owns only one
printed copy of book A and one printed copy of book
B, it can simultaneously lend only one digital copy of
book A and one digital copy of book B. Basic CDL
does not allow a library to lend multiple digital copies
when it owns only one printed copy of a book.
Aggregate CDL also has an owned-to-loaned ratio requirement,
but that requirements is based on dollars spent and lent. If in a
given year, a library buys only one printed copy of book A and
one printed copy of book B from a particular publisher, but also
buys a sufficient number of esoteric scholarly monographs from
the same publisher, the library can lend more copies of books A
and B than it owns, provided the total dollars spent is less than
or equal to the total dollar value lent.
Basic CDL versus Aggregate CDL Diagram 2
Basic CDL
With Basic CDL, to avoid waiting, the library
must buy multiple copies of common books
Aggregate CDL
With Aggregate CDL, spending and publisher revenue are the
same, but the library gets a bonus: esoteric scholarly monographs
The Aggregate CDL Bonus: more esoteric
scholarly monographs at no additional cost.
With basic CDL, if a library wishes to allow several students
to checkout the same book simultaneously, the library must
purchase multiple additional copies of that same book. This
is wasteful and it does not promote the publishing of
esoteric scholarly monographs.
With aggregate CDL, the library can spend the same dollar
amount with a particular publisher, but buy only one copy
of each popular book that it needs, and spend the balance
of the money on esoteric scholarly volumes, represented
above by books C, D and E in the diagram above. The rule
for this example, in summary is:
3 x Acost + 2 x Bcost < Acost + Bcost + Ccost + Dcost + Ecost
