Land O’Lakes

Land O’Lakes
High-Quality Products Start with High-Quality Information

Land O’Lakes is a familiar name to many consumers in the United States. Known for producing high-quality dairy products, Land O’Lakes produces the butter and cheese many of us grew up on and now feed to our own children.

High-quality products start with high-quality information. Land O’Lakes’ Research, Technology, & Energy Library is charged with gathering that information and making it readily available to the company’s researchers and scientists. Back in 1986, the librarian at Land O’Lakes selected a single desktop copy of Inmagic® software to automate the library’s catalog. A few years later, the library offered employees expanded access to its resources with a network version of Inmagic’s search-only software, DB/SearchWorks. Beyond the catalog, employees could also search databases for information on research articles as well as competitive intelligence.

Fast forward to 1997. Like many companies, Land O’Lakes came to realize the benefits of an intranet as a cost-effective way to distribute information to employees across the company via a Web browser. The Information Services department set up the Land O’Lakes intranet, and encouraged all staff to make use of it.

Donna Koenig, librarian at Land O’Lakes since 1990, acted upon that advice. She researched Inmagic’s DB/Text® WebPublisher, NT-based software for publishing databases on intranets or the Web, and decided it was the best choice for taking the library’s databases to the intranet. Although Land O’Lakes budget for 1997 had already been completed, Koenig successfully justified the cost and won budget approval. With the "go ahead" from IS, the DB/Text WebPublisher implementation was under way.

Moving to a Web-based platform proved beneficial. "I noted the amount of time it saved us by switching to WebPublisher from SearchWorks because of the set-up time and training," said Koenig. "We used to have to set up SearchWorks at each individual workstation, teach the user how to map to another server, then teach them how to use it. WebPublisher allows Land O’Lakes employees and library staff to make efficient use of their time. Because the library databases can be searched from every desktop, now there’s no need for people to leave their desks or call and interrupt one of the library staff. Once they’ve found what they’re looking for, the request can be emailed to the library for the request to be filled."

The Online Library

Today, the Research, Technology, & Energy Library has its own homepage featured on the Land O’Lakes intranet, where the company’s 3500 employees can easily view the services and databases the library offers. The library catalog, including books, tapes, and journals, is available for searching on the intranet. Employees can place requests for items via a "hot link" to the library’s email address. Staff can also access route lists, and can add or remove their names with a quick email.

Going Beyond the OPAC

Employees can find competitive intelligence information in an annual reports database, which holds about 500 records on food and agriculture companies. Koenig plans to include a URL field in selected records, enabling a staff member researching a particular company in the database, for example, to click on the URL for that company and link out to its Web site for further exploration.

Land O’Lakes scientists’ laboratory notes and project files are maintained in a password-protected database. Access to these files is reserved for scientists and their staff.

In the course of their research, Land O’Lakes scientists frequently order patents. These documents can be costly as well as quite lengthy. To stave off unnecessary re-orders, the RT&E Library created a patents database. When a patent comes in, the library makes a new record for it, including an abstract of the patent. In this way, important details of the patent are quickly available to future researchers.

A product literature database holds information from equipment catalogs. Land O’Lakes’ process engineers turn here for contact information and other details before ordering equipment.

Koenig said feedback on the deployment of the library’s databases has been positive. "People like the ability to search the collection from their desktops rather than visit the library," she said. "We have to do our part to keep pushing these resources out there, telling people, ‘Hey, this is available.’"

Getting the Word Out

Koenig is doing her part to proactively market the library’s services. In April 1998, Koenig hosted a library open house, enticing employees with refreshments alongside the promise of new information. Each month, she speaks at an Internet class taught at Land O’Lakes. She presented a demonstration of the library intranet site at a brown bag seminar hosted by Land O’Lakes’ education team highlighting the company’s intranet.

Koenig believes Land O’Lakes will see a return on its investment in the not-too-distant future. "I want to make the software pay for itself," said Koenig. "As people get used to emailing us with requests, instead of calling, I think that will happen. Since my job involves a great deal of online literature searching, being able to do that uninterrupted will be great."

For Land O’Lakes, DB/Text WebPublisher on the intranet optimizes how information is delivered. "People were clamoring for access to these library resources," said Koenig. "Now it’s there, and it was fairly easy to set up with DB/Text WebPublisher. We've used it to the fullest."

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Crew-Noble Information Services
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Phone: (925) 837-1399   Fax: (925) 820-9114

Revised: 03/19/04