WiLS May 2016 Vendor Partner Interview: Jeff Calcagno, Backstage Library Works

At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with.  Each month, WiLS interviews a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations.  This month, we are delighted to share insights from Jeff Calcagno, Vice President of Sales at Backstage Library Works and a WiLS direct order vendor partner!

Tell us about your company’s background.

With over 25 years of experience, Backstage Library Works is known for our expertise in handling complex and unique projects. Backstage specializes in digitization, preservation microfilm, metadata services, automation services, retrospective conversion, reclassification, and on‐site services (RFID tagging, reclassification, digitization, and cataloging).  Our clients include thousands of libraries, archives, museum, publishers, and national libraries.  The work we perform for librarians, archivists, and other information professionals is the core of our company mission.

Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?

As a librarian myself, it is gratifying to develop close working relationships with our library clients.  We see ourselves as an extension of the library team itself so I am always excited to watch those relationships grow and develop.   I am in the vendor world but our way of thinking at Backstage is “How can we be a key cog in their day-to-day operations?”  What can I do personally to make them succeed?  Our entire company is focused on this goal.  So, though I work for one company, I also work for thousands of libraries!  That’s gratifying.

What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?

Libraries are generally focused on serving local needs – students, faculty, researchers, families, job-seekers.  We like to understand what’s happening on campus or in the community that is driving the services libraries are prioritizing for their users.  In the larger context of serving their users, what outcomes are desired?  How can we help get them there under the demands of a larger overall project deadline (e.g., a building renovation or collection consolidation) and under specific budget constraints?  Also, because our projects can be complex and often involve working with unique and valuable collections, it is incumbent on our service teams to delve deeply into projects details.  Essentially, our partnerships are “collaboratively intensive” but we believe this results in knowing our library partners better than most vendors.

What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?

Access and preservation underpin most of the work we do at Backstage.  Keeping that in mind, some of our current development work centers on making our metadata services more nimble and quick to respond to changing needs in the library field.  For example, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) announced at the end of 2015 they would no longer supply the MeSH subject authority file in a pre-coordinated format.  This has some of our libraries examining the possibility of “de-constructing” their MeSH subject fields to enhance a more faceted search approach.  Working with NLM, we have refined our algorithms and methodology for this deconstruction service.  Several libraries are now examining implementation.   The underlying current for new ideas regarding metadata is that library communications formats are become less “bucket like” (see linked data) and the approach to the use of various thesauri are changing rapidly.  We want to be a library vendor that responds ahead of the curve (at least some of the curves).

Another idea that is continuing to drive innovation at Backstage is the simple notion that libraries, being local institutions, are often best served by having us bringing our services onsite.  For this reason, we are increasingly working to develop onsite programs that address problems with handling special collections: inventorying and special housing, digitization, and metadata creation to name just a few.  This focus at Backstage runs concurrently with the many challenges libraries are now facing managing legacy print collections cooperatively while they also begin the process of bringing their valued and rare special collections into a broader world of users.  Over the past several years we have served dozens of libraries with an increasing onsite presence in the US, Canada, and Europe.

In sum, we often find libraries simply aren’t aware that a big idea can be something they can do in a cooperative partnership right at their own library.  What better place!

How can librarians become partners in product or training development?

Because of the customized nature of many of our services, it is important that we carefully listen to product suggestions in the context of developing solutions.   Many of our clients have a certain notion as to how a particular project should be conducted but we often find that some of the proposed workflow doesn’t always take advantage of our combined strengths and capabilities.  For Backstage, we are particularly focused on working to break down the processes involved in automating certain work that can then be split with the already known manual effort.  Even the manual work itself can be moved into a more efficient environment by considering tools we have specifically developed for the particular work to be addressed.   If both parties come with an openness to address the project from a team-based perspective, we typically find a good fit for developing a final outcome that is most efficient and cost-effective.