Winter has reared its frigid head here in upper Michigan. The last few weeks have been filled with snow and rain on an almost daily basis, and high temperatures have been in the high thirties to low forties.  In the north it is times like these that make the library a very good entertainment option for its patrons.  It also reminds us that heating the library is an important part of the budget!  Thus far this blog has been concerned with the idea of web sites for the rural library, but actually, I have been driving toward the ultimate web site.   If we are going to have one, we might as well have a portal.

A portal is a high-functioning web site that does more than publish information. It will extend services through programmed interfaces, and it will serve as an integration platform for diverse web content.

Typically, a portal is not a part--important or otherwise--of a rural library budget.  Why?  As we have been discussing, there are several reasons that are typically cited.  Today we are adressing a very important one: cost.

When your small library is hard pressed to staff or collect, spending money on a web site is a dubious initiative.  Why? How much does it cost?

According to a PLA (Public Library Association) Tech Note concerning library web portals, ( http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plapublications/platechnotes/librarywebportals.cfm ):

The start-up cost of a library portal product can range from as little as $7,500 for a small library purchasing software only for mounting on an existing server to well over $100,000 for a large library purchasing a system which includes hardware, software, and third-party link-resolution services. Hardware and software maintenance and a link resolver subscription that keeps the linkages up to date can cost several thousand dollars a year. Most subscription pricing is based on the number of linkages sought.

OUCH!  No wonder no one has them! Wait.  There are two assumptions inherent in that estimate.

First, if we look at this carefully, we see that it is based on ownership of hardware and software.  Said ownership also has high costs for staff that accomplish maintenance.  Second, the most expensive software is digital content and software to resolve links to that content.

What if I told you that none of this is necessary for your small public library?  Well, it's true.  The costs of running a web site can be amazingly low, if we can just get away from the notion that we have to own everything.  In business it is common to contract for services. It is known as out-sourcing.  It is a way of managing costs and adding value through contracting for services and support.

In this respect it seems that the library community is somewhat ignorant.  Why not contract for portal services from a web hosting provider?  Costs can be as low as $5 per month but they cover a range of price points.  Software is free.  Basic operations and computer site management is free.   Why do we want local ownership of a computer center, or statewide ownership of a centralized datacenter for the same purpose?

The fact is that there are datacenters that provide web hosting for multitudes of customers, and their economies of scale allow them to make us an extraordinary value proposition. Yet we continue to re-invent the wheel, wasting a collective fortune in the process. Why not let the specialists provide their specialty and  save money for those things that only libraries can do?

OK. So maybe we can save $7,500 on software and maybe even a bunch more by not buying a server or paying for computer support on it.  Still there is the second assumption that we will need those subscriptions and link resolvers and such.  Yes they are expensive, but those are not the stuff of small libraries. We don't need to buy them. Those contracts are made by states on behalf of all state libraries, and those products can easily be integrated into a portal package.

That is the point of portals. Integration.  Using a portal package, you can bring together diverse resources and organize them in ways that make sense for your public.  I think this is an important way to add value for our patrons. Suffice to say that $5 to $10 per month equates to pennies per day. Certainly it won't impinge on the ability to pay the heating bill.  Why wouldn't we adopt such a computer utility costing only pennies a day? We could obtain a pleasant and valuable return on such a small investment.

In addition to the low cost, unlike the "plain" web sites that some libraries have, these portal sites have  powerful features that you would otherwise have to have programmed for a web site, but that speaks to complexity...let's save that for next time.

~dd