Background

Swets is a global subscription services company, building on more than 105 years of experience to maximize the return on investments in time and money for clients and publishers in today's complex information marketplace. As there are many intricacies involved with managing print and electronic subscriptions, Swets offers a portfolio of fully integrated solutions designed to simplify the way information professionals acquire, search, access, manage and evaluate print and electronic resources. Swets is unique, being the sole subscription agent that is ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9001:2008 certified on a global basis, meaning internal work processes are performed under controlled conditions and subject to continuous improvement.

As is the case in other industries, the expanding body and importance of electronic information suggested that companies needed to find new ways to stay current. With the emergence of the world wide web, traditional print resources were not enough, particularly in an industry that prides itself on delivering the most up-to-date information to its endusers. In a YouTube video published by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), Libraries of the Future (JISC, 2009), the importance of accessing information anywhere, anytime and any way was stressed. Students want to work wherever they happen to be and to have continuous access to as much content as possible, including through their mobile devices. The rapid increase in the amount of online scholarly content clearly identifies that e-resources have an important role in research, often containing features and elements that may not be able to be represented in traditional print (Luzón, 2007, 59).

To align itself with the value of providing cutting-edge technology to the information community, Swets employs people in the field who seek out trends in the marketplace and sit on library-industry standards committees. In addition, Swets has two customer advisory boards in North America that meet at the ALA (American Library Association) Annual Conference, the ALA Midwinter Meeting and the Special Library Association Conference. Swets received direct feedback from these advisory boards more than a year and a half ago, expressing that delivery of information to mobile devices would emerge as an important trend in accessing electronic content.

The purpose of this overview is to discuss Swets’ vision of enabling mobile delivery of content through its suite of electronic products, known as SwetsWise, and to demonstrate how several components allow libraries to acquire, access and manage their electronic content.