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The Politics of e-access and e-funding in the Library environment Jill Taylor-Roe, Newcastle University Library Jill.Taylor-Roe@ncl.ac.uk UKSG Managing E-Resources Seminar 27 Oct 2005

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Topics to be covered Funding of Library Resources Stock Selection Management and Exploitation Staffing Future Trends Summary

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In the beginning Budgets for print based resources: Journals = recurrent = may be reviewed on an annual basis Monographs = non-recurrent = more flexible Miscellaneous = e.g. AV, CD-ROM, Maps Balance varied according to type of library.

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How is funding managed? By Format By Administrative Unit or Cost Centre By Budgetholder Centrally Devolved Mixed Economy!

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Characteristics of Funding in the print environment Usually item level attribution Costs may be shared across cost centres/ admin units/budget codes Generally easy to assign items by format if desired Mixture of recurrent and one-off expenditure Minimal VATable expenditure

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Let there be E E-journals, E-docs E-Databases cd-rom, then web E-Books Encyclopedias, Reference Books, Textbooks E-Datasets Human Genome Project, Research Databases, Experimental Data

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New Ways of Packaging Information Big Deals by publisher Subject Clusters Book Collections e.g. ORO, Xrefer Multi year deals Huge growth in recurrent vs one-off expenditure Significant Increase in VATable expenditure

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Funding Solutions? Re-allocate resources from traditional funds Create new funding structures Bid for new money one off or recurrent Use contingency to fund experiments Stick with what you know and hope the problem goes away?!

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What we did at Newcastle Bid for project funds - 100K pa for ejournals, 25K pa for e-books Created new general funds e.g. ejourmaingref for big deals Created new e-cost centres to match to print codes and moved some funding across Negotiated with Academic Schools for additional funds

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Challenges Takes time to make cases for extra money Much harder to cost library provision at cost centre level esp for journals in Big Deals Takes time to edit old budget codes to reflect new purchasing models Much harder to effect change at micro level when tied in to packages and multi yr deals

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Benefits Project funding allows experiment without detriment to established expenditure Additional dialogue with schools has increased their awareness of how info resources are priced and packaged Package deals have effectively doubled the size of our journal portfolio

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Who decides what to buy? Subject Specialist Subject Cataloguer Acquisitions Librarian End users Academics, Researchers, Company staff, Members of the Public Library Committee

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How is it bought? Individual Library Deal Approval Plans Deal brokered via Company HQ Regional Purchasing Consortium National Deal International Deal

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How has purchasing practice changed in the e- environment? (1) More people involved in the purchasing decision Possible loss of local control Takes longer to make purchasing decisions? Harder to fine tune collection management at micro level You may need to factor in software and equipment costs!!

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How has purchasing practice changed in the e- environment? (2) User demand often still focussed at micro level Harder to match this against prevailing purchasing models New models still emerging open access- pay to publish

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Management of Library Resources: whos involved? In traditional print environment: Librarian Subject Specialists/Information Staff Acquisitions Staff Technical Services Staff Reader Services Staff Bindery Staff? Any one else??

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And where e-resources are involved? New Players: Information Systems Staff Legal Eagles checking and approving licences Library Managers dealing with access issues IT Help desk staff I cant get this journal to work on my PC IT staff employed by publisher or vendor

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And who loses out? Acquisitions staff fewer print items to process Shelvers fewer print items/vols to shelve and tidy Issue desk staff fewer items/vols going out on loan Bindery Staff NB Changes have hit journals hardest books still predominantly print, but this will change too.

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Collection Management Selection Relegation Disposal Fitness for purpose meets needs of core users e.g. University Staff and Students, Company Employees, General Public

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Key Aspects of Collection Management in Print Environment Material tends to be bought outright Physical items reside in Library or are relegated to local or remote Stores Relatively easy to apply specific or general focus e.g. to expand or contract a particular subject area or resource format Space (or lack of it) can be a key driver

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Collection Management of E- Resources (1) Tend to be annual lease rather than outright purchase Resources reside on publishers/aggregators servers or in repositories What happens to previously subscribed content if you cancel? What happens when publisher sells e-content and it leaves the package you were subscribing to?

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Collection Management of E- Resources (2) Disposal of print back runs may require additional investment in e-versions Should we/Can we afford to retain print back runs just in case? Space (or lack of it) can also be a key driver Customer pressure may lead to demand for more extensive backruns

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Promotion Print catalogues, user guides, web pages? E-Resources all of the above plus Tutorials, (online and face to face) FAQs, Helpsheets Demos

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Staffing: managerial aspects Existing staff need new skills, esp IT skills Regular training/updates are needed More library staff are involved good communication needed More support/services needed from agents and other vendors Staff profile is changing implications for recruitment, budgeting and deployment of existing staff

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Staffing: impact on people (1) Traditional, familiar tasks may reduce or disappear Jobs may be lost Staff may feel threatened, undervalued, lack confidence about the future supportive management needed! Workloads may increase and become more complex

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Staffing: impact on people (2) Staff can and will become enthusiastic supporters, promoters and managers of e- resources But it requires considerable investment of time and resources to achieve this!! May take time before your staffing profile matches the needs of the e-library

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Future Trends More e-resources less print Revised funding models to take account of new publishing models - e.g. OA Radical revision of traditional library footprint learning caf, social learning space etc Staffing profile reflects growth in resources Regional or National Solutions to print legacy question? More cross-sectoral activity?

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Summary E-resources have radically changed the ways in which we acquire, manage and promote library resources We have had to acquire new skills, new staff ( if we can!) and new strategies to cope Staff workloads have increased The growth in e-resources has generally been viewed positively by librarians, but has also been seen as a threat by some staff We are still learning how best to manage e-resources Emerging technology will undoubtedly require new skills

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And finallyremember that: Change is Constant (Benjamin Disraeli) S/He who hesitates is lost (Proverbs)