Managing serials in the electronic world. Fíona Tipple. Sub Librarian, Bibliographic Services UCD Library

Transcription

1 Managing serials in the electronic world Fíona Tipple Sub Librarian, Bibliographic Services UCD Library UCD Library Leabharlann UCD 1

2 Outline Why are serials so important for libraries? Represent a significant financial investment Managing print and electronic serials Basic principles the same, but Additional procedures for electronic serials are More time consuming More complex The UCD Library experience 2

3 Why are serials important? Serial literature represents a major part of an academic library s collection Usually absorbs more than 50% of library materials budget In UCD we spend over 2.68m on serials, of which 800,000+ is required for electronic subscriptions This is a big investment! 3

4 Serials management Pre-purchase considerations Selection considerations Financial considerations Licence & technical issues Access routes Post-purchase considerations Organisation Delivery Monitoring use User support 4

5 Selection criteria - content Required to support new course / research area? Relevant to audience? Relevant to curriculum? Relevant to institutional research profile? Subject under-represented in existing collection? Impact factor? 5

6 Selection criteria - interface Adequate functionality? HTML or PDF? Easy to use, intuitive? Searches Can be ed, printed, saved, re-run? Availability of alerts, citations, personal accounts 6

7 Finance Price Bundled with print free or premium? Can we cancel print? Deep discount available? VAT 13.5% print 21% electronic Can we afford it? Within existing budget? By cancelling something else? With help from outside the library? 7

8 Licence & technical issues Authorised users who? Downloading / printing Inclusion in course packs Integration in campus VLE Additional hardware/software required? Authentication Off-campus access 8

9 Access routes -1 Several options: Gateway services Collections of links to primary publishers content Single initial user interface Useful for handling individual titles Useful additional functionality TOCs, Abstracts, DOCDEL Examples SwetsWise EBSCOhost Ingenta 9

10 Access routes - 2 Aggregator services Large collections of full text e-content licensed from publisher and sold on to libraries on subscription Packaged and sold as a single product Comprehensive search system with single interface Can be multidisciplinary or discipline-specific Examples Justis General Academic ASAP Business Source Premier 10

11 Aggregator services advantages Expanded information access for library users Single subscription & payment to one information provider Significantly lower cost per use Freedom to cancel print subscriptions Single licence Single interface 11

12 Aggregations disadvantages Loss of control over collection development decisions Incomplete subject coverage Selective journal coverage / duplication of journal coverage Publishers embargoes on current/latest issues Exclusivity deals between publisher and aggregator Volatility of content 12

13 Access routes - 3 Direct from publisher Single or multiple titles available Packaged and sold as a single product Large collections of full text e-content Comprehensive search system with single interface Multidisciplinary or discipline-specific packages available Big Deal 13

14 Big Deals Publisher s aggregation of all his output Usually marketed as an all-or-nothing deal Usually a single product, though subject-specific subsets often available Print subscriptions usually, but not always, bundled 14

15 Price - 1 List price Free with print What it says on the tin! Bundled access Access to one format depends on having a subscription to the other Bundled print subscription often available at deep discount Usually applies to single titles Sometimes the only option 15

16 Price - 2 Unbundled access Print and electronic versions remain separate entities - subscription can be for either print-only or e-only Very common with reference services, e.g. WoS, SciFinder Scholar Occasionally the case with Big Deals, e.g. IEL Online Print equivalents can be cancelled at will 16

17 Price - 3 Big Deals Price usually based on library s existing print spend, plus e-access fee Multiple year subscription agreements often available, with capped annual price increases Reduction of existing spend (represented by existing print subscriptions) may be restricted Examples Science Direct, Synergy, Wiley InterScience 17

18 Price - 4 Consortia either formal bodies established to negotiate on behalf of their members, e.g. CHEST, JISC, IUA Periodicals Consortium informal groups to which publishers/information providers bring their wares, e.g. IRIS 18

19 Consortia advantages & disadvantages Combined buying power may produce significantly better terms than an individual library could negotiate Group may gain access to collections that none of the members could have hoped to acquire individually One size fits all model Identikit holdings lists may compromise national research collection 19

20 Housekeeping - 1 Check-in and claiming Still taken as read for printed journals Necessary for electronic journals? If so, how? To catalogue or not to catalogue Not all libraries catalogue their serial collections Separate records Piggy-back records 20

21 Housekeeping - 2 EJMS Serials Solutions TDNet EBSCO A-Z 21

22 Housekeeping - 3 Monitoring use Why monitor? Is the product used? If not, why not? Unsuitable product? Inadequate content? Unsuitable/unfriendly interface? Promotion/training shortfall Does the intrinsic importance of product outweigh all other considerations? 22

23 Housekeeping - 4 Monitoring use How? Usage statistics easily/readily available from supplier? How to use/publish locally COUNTER-compliant statistics 23

24 Housekeeping - 5 User support Promotion IT / Information literacy skills of users Training library staff and users Library IT infrastructure Institutional IT infrastructure 24

25 Archiving Post-cancellation access Long term availabilty 25

26 UCD Library and e-resources - 1 5,000+ print current print serials First electronic subscriptions were on CD-ROM, late 1980s 33,000+ current electronic serials Electronic serials come from a mixture of single titles, aggregators and Big Deals Still to bite the bullet with significant print cancellations 26

27 UCD Library and e-resources - 2 Serials Solutions front-ends our e-journal collection Once the IReL initiative started to deliver, no way we could keep up the e-journal collection quadrupled in one 3-week period! Still catalogue in-house, but once conversion to MARC21 complete buying-in MARC records will come under serious consideration 27

28 UCD Library and e-resources - 3 Administration now more complicated More use of senior staff time Licence evaluation More contact with suppliers Arranging trials, training More training of front-line staff First point of contact for users More technical support required to Make the most of the bell & whistles Solve local IT problems 28

29 Useful reading - 1 Kidd, T. & Rees-Jones, L.: The serials management handbook. London: Library Association, 2000 Kidd. T: E-serials collection management: transitions, trends and technicalities, Library review, 54(6), 2005, pp. Managing electronic resources, ANLTC Course 97, NUI Galway, May 2005 ( 29

30 Useful reading - 2 Montgomery, C.H.: Print to electronic: measuring the operational and economic implications of an electronic journal collection, Learned publishing, 15(2), 2002, Nabe, J.: E-journal bundling and its impact on academic libraries, Issues in science and technology librarianship, Spring 2001 ( Rupp-Serano, K. et al. Canceling print serials in favor of electronic, Library collections, acquisitions & technical services, 26, 2002,

31 Useful links el/index.html 31