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Books Go to School: SciTech Publishers
Learn How to Put Reference to Work |
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2 June 2006 |
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Reference books may conjure up images of the rows of dusty
volumes down at the local library awaiting an expert's
touch to guide you to arcane facts and figures. For
engineers in scientific and technology oriented industries,
though, reference books are becoming highly searchable and
interactive sources that make their users' lives much
easier. Providing an effective transition into the online
realm for long-trusted reference books takes a lot of deep
insights into how an audience uses reference content to
solve critical problems - research that database publishers
have engaged in for years. Now that book publishers are
getting the hang of online reference tools, where will we
see their business models move next? |
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Publishers in many sectors are
discovering the virtues of "chunking" content from straight
text-and-graphics print and online presentations into more
targeted and digestible forms that solve specific problems for
their audiences. But the chunking movement is less about
slicing and dicing unstructured documents than it is about
understanding what it is that users really focus on in using
them. In relying on audiences to divine the best uses of
all-purpose content sources publishers became far too used to a
small array of layout and graphics tricks to package content in
static forms. Now that online content dominates both enterprise
and media content markets publishers heretofore slow to pick up
on new ways of presenting content are realizing that it's time
for them to go to school on what their users really need.
One of the current hotbeds for this great awakening can be
found in SciTech publishing. Publishers of scientific reference
books and materials are learning how to get their content off
of the bookshelves and into the workflows of researchers,
technicians and engineers. It's not always as easy a task as
you may think. Many SciTech reference books hang around in the
cubicles of scientists like favored pairs of old slippers: they
know that there are better ways to do things but flipping
through a trusted reference book can be so darn comfortable
when there are so many other details that require their
attention. But this "if it's not broken don't fix it" mentality
is being brushed aside by publishers who have their own fragile
business models to shore up as soon as possible.
Knovel
Corporation has been a leader in transforming SciTech reference
products from major publishers into highly interactive sources
that help these professionals to use reference materials much
more effectively and efficiently. Knovel's online library of
reference sources chunks up key content like graphs and tables
into discrete searchable items that can be located with simple
or sophisticated search formulas. But Knovel goes a step
further and develops software that can turn reference data into
interactive tools that can help evaluate data in graphs and
models with a glide of a mouse rather than punching in
reference data into a spreadsheet. Knovel's recently
announced relationship with the Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics underscores how niche content can be
brought to life through sophisticated insight into how
audiences really need to solve problems.
Sometimes the transformation of SciTech content into more
usable forms can take a simple and elegant route also.
Elsevier's newly
announced Path Consult product is the result of careful and
detailed research into how pathologists analyze tissue samples
using their reference books. The "old slippers" in this
instance were flopped open right next to their microscopes and
pored through laboriously to get answers - with nearby PCs
nowhere in the picture. Their analysis showed that productivity
and accuracy could be enhanced greatly by having the right
three possible matches for a sample side-by-side in an
electronic display, with summarized diagnostic information to
make it easy for the pathologists to sift through possible
matches much more effectively. No big bells and whistles here,
just a careful and highly iterative analysis of what really
worked for this audience - with major lifesaving results.
These kinds of success stories are becoming increasingly
commonplace in the book industry as publishers learn to lock in
customers to highly valuable relationships based on
understanding their problem-solving needs as deeply as database
publishers. What does it take to get educated in the ins and
outs of what makes content really work for today's
professionals? Here are a few things to bear in mind when
scoping out your product requirements:
- Get very specific on user types. While there are
common functions performed by professionals using electronic
content products diversified communities of users have very
specific goals when they turn to them - differences that may
not be clear from normal product profiles available from your
marketing team. Make sure that you are going to get in-depth
knowledge of the specific types of users who value your
content the most. Sometimes this means going through a number
of "close but not quite" profile fits to understand where the
limits of highly engaged users really lie and how the content
helps people to work together effectively.
- Gets hands on with your lead users. Interviewing
of users in conference rooms and via phone is fine for
filling out a picture of use that's already pretty clear to a
publisher but if you haven't seen them in action you're
missing the boat. A wealth of detailed insights can come into
view very quickly when you invest in having professional user
analysts eyeball the actual tasks users undertake in person.
Keep a special eye on the things that may not look like
productivity tools at a casual glance but which may turn out
to be "old slippers" that are giving you hints as to how
audiences really need to be engaged with content.
- Keep your mitts off the software development for as
long as you can. While highly iterative software
development that engages users with rapidly developed
prototypes is certainly an important tool for getting
functionality tuned to the needs of users, the later those
iterations come the better. Listen to users as long as you
can - and listen some more. Once software or Web pages of any
kind show up on a user's desk they become very locked in to
the visual presentation of a content application and begin to
lose focus on what their real needs are. Do whatever it takes
for the user to understand clearly that you're trying to
build a detailed picture of the real world - not a better
format for a software display.
As book publishers learn to push aggressively into user
applications they the skill sets that they need to bring to
publishing change - as do the business models and the
partnership opportunities. It's still early days for packaging
books as interactive reference tools but already many students
appear to be learning well.
-
John Blossom
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