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Dear Colleagues…

Dear Colleagues:  While it seems almost surreal to be writing this – I am acknowledging over 50 years in the information industry, and within weeks of my 70th birthday – I often ask how this happened???

Over these decades I have witnessed and hopefully influenced many of the changes that we are all part of today.  Did I ever think I would find myself ‘tweeting’ or being a social media maven or learning more about the inner workings of a COVID world – certainly not.  I hope over these challenging times I have made your careers a little easier and provided help to you with your day-to-day environments.

It is time for me to re-focus my attention on my family – four and two footed critters alike and remember to take a deep breath.  You can always reach out to me should you want to brainstorm or just check in from time to time.  I will deeply treasure the many meaningful relationships these years have brought.  Unlimited Priorities has been a pleasure to own, and I will have fond memories of the many interesting/sometimes crazy projects we took on.

I will be around until mid-October should you need anything – remember – I am a Facebook addict so you can keep up with me and I look forward to reading about your adventures.  My email and phone number will remain the same so please – reach out at any time.  Many, many thanks for the memories – be well – and may your futures be kind to you – and please – remember to try and save a life today! Cheers, Iris (and John and the Pups!)

Thank you,

Iris

Iris L. Hanney
President
Unlimited Priorities LLC
1930 SW 48th Lane
Cape Coral FL 33914
239-549-2384
iris.hanney@unlimitedpriorities.com

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Establishing a Close, Collaborative Partnership Between Publisher and Vendor

Introduction

In 2014, Unlimited Priorities, specialist consultants for scholarly publisher Accessible Archives (AA), were seeking a provider of COUNTER usage and analytics. Following a recommendation by a Director at NFAIS (now NISO), they contacted Scholarly iQ (SiQ).

Together, AA and SiQ built a working relationship that serves as a valued example of creating a trust centred partnership between a publisher and a selected specialty vendor.

In this article, we explore and share three key components which cemented the close-knit AA and SiQ team. This team ensured continued compliance with the evolving COUNTER standards, exemplary customer support, as already established by Unlimited Priorities, and shared best practices and innovations which would otherwise be unavailable to most scholarly publishers.

Trust in Expertise

AA required a vendor who not only provided COUNTER compliant solutions but also was an expert partner who truly understood and supported the standards and requirements. Established in 2003, SiQ has unrivalled experience in COUNTER services and compliance, staying at the forefront of latest standards and guidelines as well as representing AA interests in the development of the standards. This includes SiQ’s active participation in industry working groups including COUNTER, NISO and CrossRef.

Additionally, SiQ as a committed specialist for the provision of COUNTER reporting and analytics with full control over proprietary solutions, is able to ensure that AA reporting services continue to align with changing COUNTER requirements in a cost effective, scalable model shared across multiple publishers.

SiQ’s knowledge, compliance and product roadmap demonstrated to AA their commitment to delivering solutions that would continue to meet and lead the specific needs of the publishing industry. It also ensures long-term compliance and avoids the threat of hitting a brick wall should a third party application not be able to support any change stipulated by the industry standards.

A current example of this is COUNTER’s upcoming changes for v5.1, where the Item rather than the Title will become the unit of reporting. Through SiQ, AA is already fully compliant for the provision of Item Master Reports meaning AA can be confident in continued compliance following this change. Other publishers will need to check their vendor’s status at the COUNTER Registry and either seek assurances or make plans to change vendor before v5.1 comes into effect at the beginning of 2025.

An Entente Exceptionnelle: Three  Components

Firstly, the foundation for the relationship between SiQ and AA was transparent communication. With open lines of communication, including direct contact with SiQ CEO Gary Van Overborg, both parties aligned to collaborate as partners rather than transactional entities.

This fostered a true partnership, inviting input from both sides whilst valuing the expertise and insights both SiQ and AA brought to the table. Through open channels and an environment of mutual respect and cooperation, SiQ and AA leveraged each other’s strengths for mutual benefit and customer satisfaction.

Secondly, SiQ’s rapid response and dedication to customer support meant that AA could rely on SiQ as closely as an internal team within AA, more akin to a single organisation than an external vendor. The tight working relationship created trust in reliability. A consistent, proven track record of delivering on promises ensured fast resolutions where a less responsive approach would have frustrated and hindered success.

Finally, the commitment between SiQ and AA raised free, open communication about issues, challenges, performance, evaluation and improvement. Bypassing bureaucratic procedures so often enacted by vendors, encouraged direct collaboration, and through this faster issue resolution, product development and end customer satisfaction – a true win–win–win.

Enhanced Experience

Working with over 35 scholarly publishers and supporting over 200,000 librarian users, SiQ has been able to leverage over 20 years’ experience to develop solutions and best practices that enhance service value and experience for both AA and AA’s librarian customers.

For AA one of the key advantages SiQ brought to the partnership was extensive experience in working with similar customers in scholarly publishing. SiQ’s comprehensive understanding of the challenges, pain points and best practices proved invaluable from the very start, including the initial implementation:

“I have been in this industry for a very long time and I can say without qualification, never have I worked with a team that made the implementation of a project as easy as you have – everyone was a pleasure to deal with, you were uniquely sympathetic to our situation, you worked through all of our challenges with us to come to mutually agreeable solutions – this has truly been amazing.
I would be delighted to act as a reference for you at any time – your team is first class all the way – and very patient – helpful when dealing with the ‘slower’ learning school. Thanks so much for everything!!!!”

President, Unlimited Priorities LLC

Once implemented, mutual confidence reinforced and COUNTER compliance covered, AA were able to benefit from SiQ’s trusted advice to tailor best practices, custom reports and insights and use the flexibility of SiQ’s technologies to drive further evidence-based decisions from trusted, transparent data. The combination of established experience in understanding publisher challenges and opportunities across both SiQ and AA teams working closely together fostered growth and development for both organisations.

For librarians, the AA COUNTER reporting portal provides seamless access to their own COUNTER usage data in an increasingly intuitive and engaging environment. With optimised performance, help wizards, comprehensive documentation, free monthly librarian training sessions and in-built quick wins to pivot between COUNTER Standard and Master Reports, the AA COUNTER reporting service makes it easier for AA customers to access and manage their usage data.

“After giving myself a crash course and learning how the process worked I came to appreciate how straightforward the Scholarly iQ site is, especially compared to others I had to work with. In fact, my first successful SUSHI download was from Scholarly iQ.
I have used the Scholarly iQ site with other providers and have been pleased. I also appreciated the quick support I received from both Accessible Archives and Unlimited Priorities in response to my questions.”

Electronic Resources Manager, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Additionally, SiQ’s direct customer support has provided AA with the confidence that their librarian customers are treated with the same exemplary service and response times as they would expect from the Unlimited Priorities team. Prompt and helpful assistance from SiQ further builds trust in AA’s commitment to their own customer satisfaction, contributing to a positive subscriber experience and reinforcing loyalty to AA.

“I’m truly impressed! Usually I fire off these emails and (because of time differences) expect a reply back next day. Not only have you replied, but you’ve fixed the problem, within a couple of hours! You’re all wonderful … thanks very much!”

Cataloguer, Collection Services, Massey University Library

The SiQ team was to be an extension of the AA customer service, so a mutual value of customer focus and extreme responsiveness was a keystone of communicating a seamless, singular customer-led service.

Conclusion

Building a close, collaborative partnership between publisher and vendor requires an open trust-centred working relationship whereby both organisations align to not only mutually benefit but also bring advantages to end users. By leveraging specialist, dedicated services from vendors committed to and invested in the provision of these services, publishers like AA can ensure long-term solutions matching their evolving needs, receive and deliver exceptional customer service and benefit from the experience and expertise of a team which would otherwise be unavailable for a single publisher.

Ultimately the SiQ–AA relationship enhanced collaboration, improved performance, drove innovation and leveraged collective strengths to deliver a better service and experience for all parties. Whether you are a publisher or vendor we encourage you to consider how well-matched and trusted your valued business relationships are, and how they may better support each other.

About Accessible Archives, Inc®

Accessible Archives employs a team of digital technology and conversion specialists to deliver vast quantities of archived historical information, previously only available in microform, hard copy, or image-only formats. Our databases, containing diverse primary source materials such as leading books, newspapers, and periodicals, reflect a broad range of perspectives across 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century America.

About Unlimited Priorities LLC®

Unlimited Priorities LLC utilizes its highly skilled group of professionals to provide a variety of support services to small and medium-sized companies in the information industry. The Archival Initiatives Division (AID) offers practical consultative services to libraries, historical societies, and associations. AID provides advice and assistance in archival content selection, rights ownership, project management, workflow analysis, production, distribution of converted content and interaction with commercial entities. By coordinating a library’s project requirements with commercial firms’ interests, Unlimited Priorities creates an atmosphere of mutual cooperation while organizing a successful process at a reasonable cost.

About Scholarly iQ

Celebrating 20 years, SiQ provides unrivalled expertise for trusted usage analytics. SiQ’s fast, easy, platform independent implementation delivers valued data insights to customer, sales, editorial, marketing and partner stakeholders. Questions about COUNTER, Open Access, Impact, Data or wider Business Intelligence? Trust SiQ to have you covered.

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Unlimited Priorities LLC Has Been Retained to Manage the Merger of Accessible Archives Inc. and Coherent Digital LLC

Coherent Digital LLC has retained Unlimited Priorities LLC to manage the merger of the two companies’ content and technology in much the same way as Unlimited Priorities has managed Accessible Archives for the last decades – as the sales, marketing, technology, and product development . Continue Reading →

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Unlimited Priorities Announces Big Ten Academic Alliance Acquisition of Accessible Archives’ New African American and Women’s History Collections

Big Ten Academic Alliance Unlimited Priorities working closely with the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Library Initiatives Division and Accessible Archives announces the BTAA acquisition of new essential primary source content for their member libraries. The content includes: African American Newspapers in the South, 1870-1926 and The Woman’s Tribune, 1882-1909.

Iris L. Hanney, president of Unlimited Priorities, exclusive sales, marketing, and technology representative for Accessible Archives, believes that “delivering this vast amount of Accessible Archives content to the entire BTAA community offers exciting new teaching and research opportunities for all users.” Continue Reading →

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Unlimited Priorities announces Sabinet/Gale African periodicals partnership

Unlimited Priorities, an information publishing company, coordinated with Sabinet, a leader in the South African information industry, and Gale, a Cengage company, global pioneer in research and learning resources, to provide American academic institutions access to Sabinet’s comprehensive collection of scholarly journals emanating from the African continent.

Until now there has been a critical lack of legitimate content from African countries in American institutions. This collection fills the need with over 367 current and 230 retrospective full text journals.  Subject areas covered are business and finance; education; labor; law; medicine and health; religion; science, technology and agriculture; social sciences and humanities. The databases will be available in 2021. Continue Reading →

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Unlimited Priorities to Manage and Implement Technology Upgrades

Cape Coral, FL (February 5, 2019) Unlimited Priorities LLC is pleased to announce the development, management, and implementation of a variety of technology initiatives in 2019 for its clients. Access will be available via both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for our client. The addition of IPv6 promises a stronger, faster user experience!

Unlimited Priorities president, Iris L. Hanney, believes that  “the implementation of IPv6 and additional developments in 2019 continues to highlight our ongoing commitment to serve the library and information community with the most up to date technology.”

In consultation with our partner’s library customers, Unlimited Priorities LLC was made aware of the concern that the IPv4 addressing scheme was running out of potential addresses and schools were wanting to move toward IPv6 address usage.  Unlimited Priorities supervised the technology developments necessary to accommodate customers’ needs.

The IPv6 format was created to enable new IP addresses required to connect not only an ever-greater number of computing devices but also the rapidly expanding numbers of items with embedded connectivity.

To insure the viability of the IPv6 gateway Unlimited Priorities conducted access testing with two academic libraries. Our thanks go out to Ruth Light, Electronic Resources Access Manager, Indiana University Libraries, and Michaelyn Haslam, Electronic Resource Librarian, UNLV University Libraries for working with us and providing invaluable feedback. The successful testing was a very key component to going forward.

 About Unlimited Priorities LLC©

Unlimited Priorities LLC utilizes its highly skilled group of professionals to provide a variety of support services to small and medium-sized companies in the information and publishing industries. The Archival Initiatives Division (AID) offers practical consultative services to libraries, historical societies and associations. AID provides advice and assistance in archival content selection, rights ownership, project management, workflow analysis, production, distribution of converted content and interaction with commercial entities. We recognize that each location or organization is unique, requiring customized and locally-based solutions.

Contacts

Iris L. Hanney, President
Unlimited Priorities LLC
239-549-2384
iris.hanney@unlimitedpriorities.com
www.unlimitedpriorities.com

Robert E. Lester
Unlimited Priorities LLC
203-527-3739
robert.lester@unlimitedpriorities.com
www.accessible-archives.com

 

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Unlimited Priorities Supports COUNTER 5 Compliance

Cape Coral, FL (April 17, 2019)Unlimited Priorities LLC is pleased to announce the management and implementation of COUNTER Release 5 with COUNTER vendor, Scholarly iQ and Lorraine Estelle at COUNTER.

Iris L. Hanney, President, believes that “in managing library resources in today’s exploding world of information, independent usage reporting is critical in demonstrating content value. Upgrading to COUNTER R5 compliance continues the ongoing commitment to serve the library and information community.”

“We are delighted that Unlimited Priorities is coordinating work on the implementation of Release 5 of the Code of Practice to ensure that their partners provide the new reports early in the required time frame.” said Lorraine Estelle, Director, COUNTER.

“The academic publishing market is fast becoming increasingly online and data driven,” said Gary Van Overborg, CEO and Founder, Scholarly iQ. “The latest COUNTER R5 standard has greater reporting flexibility than ever, with further insights on metrics such as investigations and unique title or item counts. COUNTER  provides trust and accountability in understanding the business value of digital products. Supporting and adhering to these latest standards is a must and we are delighted to be working with many publishers to achieve this goal. Our COUNTER work has been facilitated throughout by the excellent support at Unlimited Priorities, their technical team has made it virtually seamless to upgrade and move forward.” Continue Reading →

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Unlimited Priorities Coordinates Partnership with Portico

Cape Coral, FL (February 27, 2019)Unlimited Priorities LLC, a firm specializing in support for small and medium-size companies in the information and publishing industries, has announced that it has finalized a partnership agreement with Portico, the leading service in the digital preservation field.

Unlimited Priorities LLC has coordinated testing, managed contract negotiations and facilitated the delivery of content to Portico.

“With more and more content in a digital-only format, we have taken this step to ensure that our client’s unparalleled collections will remain accessible to customers regardless of any situation. In addition, the Portico relationship continues to highlight the ongoing commitment to serve the research community with the most up to date technology.” said Iris L. Hanney, President of Unlimited Priorities LLC.

Continue Reading →

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Alzheimer’s Research Fundraiser: Paula Rugoff’s Birthday Update

To honor Paula Rugoff & her Alzheimer’s fight please take a moment-click on the link-help to save a life today, on her birthday, and make her smile in heaven!

Please give what you can-we are edging up to $10,000 raised – keep an eye out for our snail mailing going out this week as we try to get to $15,000.

Donate Today

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Peter Stevens Retires from Unlimited Priorities

Unlimited Priorities LLC announces that Peter Stevens, a valued member of our Client Services Team, is retiring effective January 1, 2017.

Peter Stevens

Peter Stevens

Peter has been involved in every facet of Unlimited Priorities’ success over the past nine years. Peter has had a long and distinguished career in sales, marketing and management with a number of companies within the information industry, including UMI, IAC, ISI, RR Bowker, JA Micropublishing, Newsbank, Ethnic Newswatch, Techbooks (Aptara), and Pacific Data Conversion Corp. As Unlimited Priorities is the exclusive sales and marketing representative for Accessible Archives, Peter will be missed by Accessible Archives’ customers and staff.

Unlimited Priorities congratulates Peter on his retirement and thanks him for his many years of dedicated service. We wish him all the best in his well-earned rest. Peter and his wife, Louise, will now have the opportunity for more travel, catch-up on those reading lists, expand his volunteer work at Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and thoroughly enjoy their children and grandchildren.

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