Transcript Charting our Course: Print to Electronic and Evolving

Charting our Course: Print to
Electronic and Evolving Collection
Development
Kevin Engel
Grinnell College
Grinnell College Libraries
Back in 2006-07 –
Student FTE: 1,570
Faculty: 146
Acquisitions Budget (%’s of budget): 27.5% Books
70.2% Serials & Databases
2.3% AV
Book volumes (print) added by purchase: 9,998
Binding (books and serials): $37,200
Fall 2007
• Implemented ILLacq—when meeting certain criteria,
purchasing rather than borrowing books requested via
ILL.
• Elsevier announced the end of ScienceDirect Web
Editions (would end in Spring 2008).
At the time, we subscribed to 70 print journals from Elsevier; 2008 cost was
$145,000.
Online options promoted by Elsevier meant paying even more for less access
than we had had.
Were these 70 journals core to our curriculum? No (used ILL data, etc. to
determine)
Was there an alternative to subscription model? Yes, use pay-per-view for
high-priced, low-use journals.
An opportunity …
ScienceDirect Pay-Per-View Process
• Met with three academic divisions during Feb.
2008 to discuss our plan:
Cancel at least $100,000 worth of current Elsevier print subscriptions
and use that money to fund pay-per-view access.
Benefits: Access to more Elsevier journals (and ebooks) and more
years of those journals than we could possibly afford through the
traditional subscription mode—plus faster access to them than
through traditional ILL delivery.
Risks: There would be nothing to put on the shelf after purchase; each
new reader of an article/chapter would need to get a download.
Model: faculty and staff would do direct downloads; student
downloads would be mediated by librarians, student research
tutors, and library staff. Discovery done through Serials Solutions …
Discovery--ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect Pay-Per-View Process (2)
• Worked with individual academic
departments during spring 2008 to come up
with list of journals to be cancelled.
Initially, 55 subscriptions were cancelled and 15 were retained in
print (today, only 5 of those print subscriptions remain).
Has this worked?
Yes -- no complaints; it has worked and has been cost-effective;
not the final solution to journal access—but it has been a
good move for us for the time-being.
The numbers …
ScienceDirect PPV
Started June 2008: 27 downloads/$594
July 2008-June 2009: 1,414 downloads/$31,108
July 2009-June 2010: 1,475/$32,450
July 2010-June 2011: 1,221/$26,862
July 2011-June 2012: 1,376/$31,373
July 2012-March 2013: 897/$20,631
Per-article download price started at $22; now $23.
Total (June 2008-March 2013): 6,410 downloads/$143,018
**about the same that we paid for 70 print subscriptions in 2008;
project that we would have spent $892,226 for those 70
subscriptions 2009-2013**
Spring 2008
• In addition, the Libraries became a member of
the Center for Research Libraries—which
allows access to CRL’s unique tangible
collections, digitization programs, and group
database purchase offers.
Things looking up; just as this started though …
Fall 2008—Economic Crash!
• Dark clouds on College budget horizon; led to
Serials Review …
With a smaller Library budget in 2009-10 and additional
anticipated budget reductions in years ahead, we undertook a
comprehensive review of all library subscriptions during the
2009-10 academic year.
We worked closely with all academic departments and
eventually (Spring 2009) compiled a list of possible database
and journal subscription cancellations that was made
available on the Libraries’ web site for additional rounds of
feedback.
The end result was …
2009-10 Serials Review
• $187,207 in immediate savings from journal and database
cancellations and format changes (mainly print to onlineonly); we used part of this savings to purchase some new
subscriptions (journals and databases) that faculty had
requested.
• The time of this Review seemed to mark a turning point in
faculty feelings toward and acceptance of online access to
journals and other information. Most of the academic
departments and individual faculty who had been solidly
print-centric in previous years seemed to finally embrace
online access and were ready to give up print subscriptions.
• In fact, faculty supported another pay-per-view effort …
Wiley Pay-Per-View
• Using a process very similar to what we had done earlier with
Elsevier (but focused more on the Science departments this
time), faculty recommended cutting enough Wiley journal
subscriptions to start a Wiley Pay-Per-View service.
• At the finish of the process, faculty agreed to end 27 Wiley
subscriptions costing approximately $55,000.
• Discovery was again done via Serials Solutions …
Discovery--Wiley
Wiley PPV
The numbers …
September 2010-June 2011: 287 downloads/$3,874.50
July 2011-June 2012: 617 downloads/$13,394
July 2012-February 2013: 473/$8,277.50
Per-article download price has changed from $13.50 to $23.45 to now
$17.50 (it has averaged $18.55)—based on amount of deposit
purchase.
Total (September 2010-February 2013): 1,377 downloads/$25,546
**$55,000 in Wiley journal subscriptions were cancelled to fund this
service; project that we would have spent $189,196 for those
subscriptions 2011-2013**
This has also proved successful—which led to …
Credit Card
• In December 2010, our librarians started doing additional ondemand purchasing using a College credit card. This is not a
formal pay-per-view program and is used more sparingly. But,
when the circumstances are right, it allows us to buy
materials and get them into the hands of our students and
faculty more rapidly (when needed) and more cheaply than
ILL may allow.
The numbers …
December 2010-March 2013: 110 transactions/$2,995.26
**average price/download -- $27.23**
A New Way
• In fall 2011, we began discussions about formally changing
our philosophy and practices to fit a different way of doing
acquisitions.
• Learning from our efforts of recent years (use of pay-per-view
for journals, rapid purchasing and processing of books—rather
than borrowing them through ILL, etc.), we began a move to
an even more on-demand model … which led to …
Circulation and Space Analysis
• In November 2011, our colleague Beth
Bohstedt did a 10-year analysis of our
circulation patterns …
• At the same time, we knew that we were/are
running out of shelf space especially in our
main library (Burling) but also in our off-site
storage facility.
What did we find … and what could we do?
We were overbuying …
Doing okay some places; but had very
low circulation in many other areas …
Formal Changes …
• Starting January 2012, we made title-by-title ebook purchasing
(using Ebrary) a regular part of our acquisitions process. There has
not been consistent demand for ebooks on our campus, but they
will have to become a larger part of our collection as time goes
on—both for space reasons and because of publisher evolution.
• Starting late spring 2012 and especially fall 2012, we made a
conscious decision that our consulting librarians would do much
less buying to “build the collection.”
• Faculty have always been involved in collection development; now
we are pushing more book and book review information to them
electronically using Choice Online and GOBI (and working more
closely with them) to particularly encourage them to
recommend/buy the books, films, etc. they need for their teaching
and class assignments. We would like faculty to be the main source
of purchase decisions.
Choice Online
GOBI
The Reality and the Goal
• Faculty buying has been very uneven in the
past; Will they become more consistent in the
future—with our help? Time will tell …
• We are looking for the “sweet spot”—the
optimal amount of librarian buying in
combination with faculty recommendations to
bring the right books, journals, databases, av
formats, etc. to campus that our community
needs and will actually use …
What else have we done?
During Fall 2012 and Spring 2013, we have undertaken a thorough
review of every serial shelved in the reference area and every library
standing order (700+ of them). We have also continued to make some
journal cuts (on a case-by-case basis) for journals that have increased
in price by 8% or more.
2012-13 savings from these reviews have been over $42,000 from
journal and database cancellations and format changes, and an
estimated $12,700 for standing order cancellations. This has helped
blunt recent yearly serials inflation of 8%.
In 2012, we helped start and became part of the “Midwest College
Group” consortium for access to 1,800+ Springer journals from 1997
forward (group deal with annual commitment).
Discovery--Springer
What would we like to do in the near
future?
• Demand-driven acquisition for ebooks (using
GOBI/YBP—starting later this summer)
• Demand-driven acquisition for print books
(maybe using GOBI/YBP—starting in the fall)
Where are we now?
Remember Grinnell in 2006-07 –
Student FTE: 1,570
Faculty: 146
Aquisitions Budget (%’s of budget): 27.5% Books
70.2% Serials & Databases
2.3% AV
Book volumes (print) added by purchase: 9,998
Binding (books and serials): $37,200
Grinnell College in 2013 (from 2007)
Student FTE: increased 2.6% to 1611
Faculty: increased 15.1% to 168
Acquisitions Budget: Books decreased to 21.6%
Serials & Databases increased to 76.9%
AV decreased to 1.5%
Book volumes (print) added by purchase: decreased 50.5%
to 4,951
Binding (books and serials): decreased 62.8% to $13,823
Thoughts—what will the future hold?
• We will make more of our acquisitions/collection development decisions
based on data.
• We are buying and will buy fewer books in all formats. But, we will buy
more of those books on demand/just-in-time.
• We will spend more money on serials and databases due, in many cases,
just to price inflation (more money but the same or less content).
• We will buy more online primary source collections.
• We will buy fewer tangible videos and recordings but spend more money
on streaming media.
• We will buy more articles and other non-book materials on demand, just
in time; there will continue to be less emphasis on buying formats to put
on our shelves.
• We will do more (and we will have to do more) cooperative work with
other libraries in order to succeed and prosper (and just plain survive)—
group buying, shared print, shared online.
• What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?
Current Collaboration
• Central Iowa Collaborative Collections
Initiative (CI-CCI)—began Spring 2013
• Working with Central College, Drake
University, Grand View University, and
Simpson College
CI-CCI Goals
• Reduce the size of local print book collections by analyzing overlap among
the five libraries so that library space may be used for other purposes.
• Create and maintain a shared collection of print books among the libraries
(at least 2 circulating copies of each retained title) accessible to group
members as well as libraries outside the group.
• Books and other eligible items requested among the group will be handled
through Interlibrary Loan on an expedited basis—the goal is delivery to
the requesting library by the next business day.
• Going forwards, new acquisitions of print books will be coordinated
among the group members to continue to reduce duplication, save space,
and leverage acquisitions funds. A goal is to have a shared vendor to
enable efficient coordination of future purchases.
• Establish an environment for the development of other areas of
collaboration among the group members.
Thank you!
Kevin Engel
[email protected]
641-269-4234