The way we think about publishing is unduly governed by the nature of the container – the physical book. Although demand for digital content has grown substantially, publishers continue to treat digital formats as a derived or secondary use. As a result, context is truncated or excluded, reducing the degree to which content can be discovered and consumed. At the same time, content abundance places pressure on publishers to find new and more effective ways to market content products. O'Leary explains why publishers must start now to revise their content workflows so that they can link to and maintain context while creating and distributing both physical and digital products.

Whether content is in an eBook, a journal, a database or a special collection is increasingly irrelevant as users’ searching habits have changed. Often, they are seeking answers to specific questions, which makes context the driving force and the container in which the content is to be found, irrelevant. This calls for not only changes to traditional thinking, but smart technology that can read cues from the user and deliver just the right information, assembled in a way that makes it easy to navigate, understand and use. This session explores how the research experience is being recreated so that content becomes the ultimate power-source for the end-user.

The time has come to rethink what we mean by 'publishing'. Smart publishers are taking on a new roles in information dissemination and management, and establishing new relationships with their customers, founded on a deep appreciation of information technology. This talk draws in particular on lessons from science publishing, especially the activities of Nature Publishing Group and its new sister business, Digital Science.

Re-examines how important the semantic web is for publishers, which technologies are relevant, where the risks are, where current developments are leading, aiming to show that, from a technology perspective, the semantic web has not turned out to be a significant driving force in publishing, although there are one or two parts of the technology which do offer genuine utility for publishers.

Over the past five years semantics have emerged as a critical technology for the online distribution of content, and have entered mainstream adoption by publishers, in particular to power advanced information access features on their portals and to package their content innovatively. This session investigates the key current applications for semantics on the web, including some not present in the original vision, and underscore underlying trends shaping how we will manage, distribute, and access information in the future.

In an increasingly digital age the library as a physical entity - one with the right spaces and facilities and services to meet a variety of study and research needs - is as important as it has ever been. This session examines the emerging trends at the University of Aberdeen – an institution which has invested strongly in the physical and digital environments, and in the services to support both.

The continuing global economic depression has necessitated many changes in library purchasing methodologies, and has cast a spotlight on a new culprit for the long-running "serials crisis" saga - The Big Deal. The short-term benefits of this much-embraced "solution" following the last serials crisis instalment – barely a decade ago – are now being evaluated with a longer term perspective and the economic benefits are not so apparent. As economists (and others) have argued for some time, the demand for access to electronic journals would be much more price elastic - and the cost to the academic community would be lower - if universities were to stop purchasing bundled site licenses at prices that greatly exceed average cost. As many universities take steps to change the economics of these deals - or to extricate themselves completely from their terms and conditions - advances in web-scale discovery and on- demand delivery have created new opportunities to pursue demand-driven access of journal content in a much more scalable way. These demand-driven solutions may not only be the new reality for many academic libraries, but they may also become the last resort for journals from non-commercial publishers like university presses and scholarly societies.

This session explores ways in which analytics can take libraries into the next generation. Academic libraries are home to a wealth of information about the entire population of the institution—from the most senior faculty member to the newest undergraduate. Reflecting evolving patterns of research and learning, libraries are continuously gathering and recording data on research interests, student habits, and favoured scholarly resources. Increasingly under pressure to demonstrate their value to the objectives of the institution or consortium, libraries are looking for ever more creative ways to improve efficiency and productivity. Powerful analytic capabilities enable libraries to put numbers on their value and to expose tangible evidence of their leading role in the academic lifecycle. From usage data and onwards, analytics shed light on the inner workings of the entire institution, as well as those of the library. Valuable insight into libraries’ operation can be gained via purchasing trends, comparative analysis, and even predictive analysis—helping managers to better plan their daily operation. The library is becoming to the institution what Google has already proved to be for the Web—a hub of intersecting networks where both faculty and students freely share information about themselves and their research; all of which can be used to advance the goals of the institution.

Karen will draw on experience of launching SAGE Research Methods Online to show how publishers are moving beyond eBook platforms to developing products which use a range of different content types, including journals, reference works, books, and video. It will also look at other content types which are emerging: entries of different lengths, video and data which all become more accessible for both teaching and research in an online environment. The talk will also look at new business models that are emerging in an increasingly complicated menu of choices for both publishers and librarians.

The burgeoning volume of electronic content, in its many forms, constantly changes the landscape for all involved in the information industry, leading to a reliance on multiple solutions for management and delivery. This is costly and resource-hungry. Our world is becoming ever more complex; money is in short supply; libraries need to develop and implement mechanisms and solutions, either by themselves, in consortia, or to outsource to an intermediary. To help libraries to thrive in such a chaotic, changing landscape, intermediaries have to be agile and quick to adapt, delivering added value to libraries, institutions, corporations, publishers and consortia alike.

Libraries continue to struggle with the prime issues of journal transfer and platform changes with electronic subscription management. This talk provides two specific examples that illustrate how local technical services staff hours are spent addressing these issues and propose ways intermediaries can help improve these situations. It will then explore developing areas in libraries and where librarians focus will be in the next five years.

Finding the niche in serving publishers as an agent, without being a traditional subscription agent. Bridging between libraries and publishers, how does that position sales organisations like Accucoms in the supply chain? Do we compete or do we work together? What are some of the other emerging initiatives being added to the supply chain, for example, small publisher coalitions?

New business models and services are constantly being introduced to respond to factors such as the increasing pressures on library budgets, the evolving expectations from end-users and the tumultuous economic context around the world. Publishers’ offerings are evolving and it is not only the role of the modern intermediary to evolve with them, but also to anticipate the next best strategies with them. Today, flexibility is key and this presentation reviews some examples of how intermediaries can collaborate with publishers and end-users in order to secure concrete long-lasting results.