Applying Semantic Web Technologies to Meet the Relevant Challenge of Customer Relationship Management for the U.S. Academic Libraries in the 21st Century Using 121 e-Agent Framework

Relevance Challenges Of U.S. Academic Libraries Defined

Academic libraries are very concerned with CRM, especially in meeting patrons’ information needs. In a recent report from OCLC Research, Michalko, Malpas, and Arcobio surveyed 15 directors from the member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (the ARL) in the United States, and identified 26 risks in 5 categories. “Reducing sense of library relevance from below, above, and within” is the primary risk chosen by the directors (Michalko, Malpas, & Arcolio, 2010).

This is largely due to the fact that libraries are no longer the sole provider of free information resources on college campuses in the U.S. Other factors contributing to library relevant challenges are:

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  Users assuming that the availability of online alternatives and other resources such as those provided by Google or Amazon, would satisfy their research needs;

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  Inefficient communication of a library’s value proposition in value-added research process, and its impact on the growth of a nation’s economy which is increasingly dependent on knowledge and knowledge-based skills in information age of the 21^st century;

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  Unable to adjust fast enough to keep up with the changing technologies and users’ needs;

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  Unable to develop a collection development strategy to address the changing nature of recorded human knowledge and its management;

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  Relying on an old infrastructure and success metrics to answer the emerging needs of diverse users;

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  Strategic planning by the library is not aligned with the institution’s goals and objectives;

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  Due diligence and sustainability assessment of local or third party services and initiatives is not completed, tracked or analyzed;

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  Unable to establish new metrics to track and report library operations and management in a relevant, timely, and useful manner (Michalko et al., 2010).

In Search Of A Scalable Approach For Staying Relevance In The 21St Century

There has been much discussion and research on how to best match library services with patrons’ demands, especially in an ever evolving information and technological world. Clifford Lynch outlined strategic challenges and opportunities for libraries in the next 5 to 10 years. He said that the future of the libraries could not be judged in isolation from the communities that they were serving. The library communities should be viewed as part of the whole package – the role of the university, its status of being either tuition-based or land-grant based, the proliferation of media and spread of technologies, and their impact on teaching and learning activities, scientific research, and scholarly communications (Lynch, 2009).