PROFILE
medium-sized company so we have to be very careful with capital. We can’t afford to make too many investments at once,’ he added. The move to West Germany brought with
it growth. ‘At Leipzig there were never more than 50 staff. Now the company has more than 200,’ said Dorn. There have been many other changes over
the time of the company’s existence too. ‘Over the years we’ve changed perspectives as markets have changed. Within libraries we serve all their requirements – books, music scores, subscriptions – but we don’t serve private individuals anymore,’ observed Dorn. The emphasis of what the company supplies
has shifted too: ‘When I started 47 years ago, the business was about two thirds books and one third subscriptions. Now it is around one third books and two thirds subscriptions.’
Everything changes Such a shift reflects the changes in the libraries that the company serves: ‘We have gone way beyond being a supplier of information. We find out where the pain is for customers,’ he commented. Monika Krieg, the company’s head of
publisher relations and head of sales, Europe, agreed: ‘We all have to deal with new difficulties and have to know much more about technology. Customers today want organisation and management, as well as linking data. We are providing additional information such as usage statistics.’ One of the ways to help is by providing approval plans for libraries whose specialist staff does not have the time to select books that align with with their collections. Over the years Harrassowitz has established many
book or have received a copy on their standing order for the series. We are trying to work with as many aggregators as possible in order to give the library the choice to do the processing with their preferred aggregation.’ Harrassowitz began handling e-books for customers in 2010 through its OttoEditions database, which underpins e-book work processes such as bibliographical searching, identification of aggregators as well as firm order and approval plan acquisition options. ‘There was discussion in our company about where e-books belong,’ commented Dorn. ‘We
‘Practically any title published anywhere in the world was available in Leipzig due to an incredible system of storehouses that served the trade’
book approval plans for German and English language titles on the basis of individualised library profiles.
E-books emerge One of the big changes in the book industry in recent years has been the growth of e-books. The company also uses its approval plan infrastructure and deduping programme for the supply and processing of individual e-books. As Krieg said, ‘We are organising large amounts of data and customers can see online whether they have already bought a print copy of that
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decided they should be in our books business [rather than subscriptions], especially when you get away from collections.’ The electronic journals business has also
seen changes, especially with the prominent role that big deals have in the market. ‘We have certainly seen an effect with customers organising deals themselves, but this has not always turned out to be as easy as they expected because many have come back to us and asked if we could still help,’ said Dorn. Krieg added, ‘Every library is different so has to be provided with an individual electronic
interface to get their invoice in the right format. This is something that publishers can’t do so well. There is also the role of checking data and making sure everything is in its right place.’
Agents can play another role in consortia
deals too, with services to the consortia such as organising the collection of money from the different library members and helping with licensing agreements. There will undoubtedly be more changes
in the future. ‘We have to carefully observe what’s going on in the industry, with things like the semantic web and how to link data. Subscription agents might be the answer to how to organise and control chaos,’ noted Krieg. ‘There’ll be more changes,’ agreed Dorn.
‘We need to maintain flexibility so that we can adapt to new requirements as soon as we can and as professionally as we can, and listen to the needs of our customers.’ And there will be more personal changes too.
At the end of the year Knut Dorn will retire from Harrassowitz. In keeping with the family tradition, his position on the management board will be filled by his daughter Nadja Dorn- Lange, who will become director of library services books, joining Friedemann Weigel and Ruth Becker-Scheicher, who are descended from the other two original partners. Dorn, meanwhile, will be able to spend more time on his hobbies of collecting books and wines.
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