The Linnea network
The Linnea network comprises the local databases of all Finnish university libraries, the Library of Parliament and the National Repository Library as well as the union catalogue databases and the national bibliography databases hosted by Helsinki University Library. At the moment the number of locally mounted databases is 19, one of them being shared by several Art universities, and the number of union catalogue and National bibliography databases is six. In the future the network will expand as more libraries are planning to join the consortium. The libraries of the National Archives Service have already made the decision to join the Linnea network. The polytechnic libraries and the Library of Statistics are also interested in the cooperation.
Project timeline
Linnea2 is a five year project all together. A pre-survey was done at the beginning of 1997. Helsinki University Library sent a questionnaire to ten vendors, asking e.g. about the database management system, database structure, standards, different functions and features, user interface, languages and formats, training, support, prices and future plans. The questionnaire was sent to the vendors who had recently been on the shortlists of corresponding procurements in Europe or in the U.S. The report of the survey was presented to the library directors later in spring 1997.
The actual project started at the end of 1997. According to the European Union regulations procurements like this are legally bound to be advertised across the European Union, when the value of the contract exceeds the threshold which is 200 000 euros at the moment. Out of the three alternatives, open procedure, restricted procedure and negotiated procedure, the restricted procedure seemed to be the most suitable for the Linnea2 project. The procedure started officially in April when the Call for Tenders was published in Supplement S to the Official Journal of the European Communities. The tenders were received by the end of July. The fall has been allocated for the evaluation of the tenders, the end of November being the deadline for this period. At this time four systems were chosen for further evaluation and testing. The final decision is to be made by the end of September 1999. The installation of the new system should take place at the end of 2000 or the beginning of 2001 and the system should be used throughout the Linnea network in 2001. The schedule seems very slow, compared to same kind of procedures that are being carried through in other countries all over the world at the moment. The reason for the timetable is that there is no hurry. The current system is Year 2000 compliant, so there is no need to hurry because of the millenium bug. The fact is that most so-called next generation systems are still under development, and we want to implement a product that is finished and stable. On the other hand, we do not want to postpone the installation too much, because there is no more development in our current software.
The systems
After the evaluation of the tenders four systems were chosen for further assessment. The systems are
The project organization
The project organization is quite massive. Helsinki University Library, the National Library of Finland, who has been authorized by the universities and institutions to oversee the necessary arrangements and preparations, has appointed a Linnea2 project group and several other groups for different tasks at different stages of the project. Lawyers and other experts have also been consulted on specific matters. The Council for Finnish University Libraries, which consists of six library directors, is the executive group of the project. The final decisions will made by the directors of the Linnea libraries.
The selection criteria
The criteria for the award of contract is economically the most advantageous tender in terms of system architecture and support for standards, the ease of integration and general compatibility with the Union Catalogue, the completion of the main functions, expected further development, aesthetic and functional characteristics, ergonomics, quality, support and technical back-up, price and annual maintenance costs. In the area of new technology features the mandatory requirements are support for multivendor machine and operating systems, commonly used relational database technology, Client/Server-technology, graphical user interface, the possibility to search multiple databases simultaneously, multimedia support and Self Check Automation. Internationally accepted standards such as Z39.50, Unicode, Edifact and ISO ILL have to be either implemented already or there have to be documented development plans. The past performance of the vendor is a very significant factor in evaluating the credibility of the proposal and the vendor's capability to meet the requirements. That is why references from other libraries play an important role in the selection.
The network architecture
The requirements of Linnea2 RFP are based both on the present situation and the use of today but also on the future scenario of the Linnea network that was written at the Helsinki University Library in 1995. According to the scenario the future network will be based on the Z39.50 and ISO ILL protocols. Use of these standards will allow patrons and staff to log on to different library systems and search remote databases in Finland and abroad seamlessly and retrieve records from them on-line. This will give new scope for the architecture of the network. It is likely that the three bases of the network, the local services, the central system and the network connecting them (the Finnish Universities and Research Network FUNET) will remain the same, or almost the same, for the next few years. However, we are open to different architectural visions and would like to look into other solutions. We are e.g. considering the possibilities that warehousing techniques may provide to concentrate stable bibliographic data in one database, common to the whole network. At this point, before any decisions are made concerning the system, all different architectural options have to be presented and their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their risks and problems, have to be assessed. The options have to be addressed both from the technical and functional point of view. The goal is to find the best and economically the most advantageous solution that will satisfy all the parties involved.
Summary
The present Linnea network is a unique model, unparalleled throughout the world. The goal of Linnea2 is to secure that the present practice will continue and progress, whatever architectural solution is chosen. The system should meet all the requirements for the new technology. It should also be flexible and less demanding of staff resources than the current system. The new system should enable the libraries to adapt quickly to changing technologies and be responsive to new and changed requirements. It is also necessary to have an interface that enables users to search a wide variety of sources, including the local catalogues, local networks, remote databases, national and union catalogues, and Internet resources all from a single workstation. It must be possible to integrate the growing collections of digital items and full text documents into the traditional library catalogues.
