Like Topsy ……….: Like Topsy ………. how CAUL became CEIRC: the rise of the library consortium Diane Costello


Overview : Overview Why form consortia? Australia CAUL/CEIRC Gaining consensus The trends Multi-national consortia Other consortial efforts


Why form a Consortium?: Why form a Consortium? Reduce costs - Discount for volume Increase access - To all titles owned by the consortium; to publisher’s list; to aggregator’s packages Reduce work Information gathering Trial coordination Licence negotiation Price negotiation


Principles : Principles Better price and/or conditions than possible as a single institution Entry level which allows the largest number to participate Advantages for larger institutions Information gathering http://www.caul.edu.au/datasets/offers.htm http://www.caul.edu.au/datasets/ip.htm Simplify administration


… and the Publishers?: … and the Publishers? Single point for wide distribution of information Single point of contact for negotiations Single invoice … but Maintain (or increase) bottom line


Australia: Australia *CAVAL - Victoria USLA - South Australia QULOC - Queensland WAGUL - Western Australia *UNILINC - New South Wales ACTUAL - Australian Capital Territory *CASL/NLA Consortia and Licensing Working Group - MoU March 2001


CAUL: CAUL 38 AVCC member libraries; University/Chief/Principal Librarian; voluntary, subscription-based; 1928 - first meeting; 1965 - Committee formed; 1992 - Council named; 1995 - full-time executive officer.


CAUL Environment: CAUL Environment Publicly funded HE http://www.detya.gov.au/ … reducing …. 620,000+ FTE (including 63,000 HD) Library expenditure $A390m ($US 201m) $A136m on information resources ($US 70m) library staff average 108 Exchange rate October 1996 - AUD 1.0 = USD 0.8055 April 3, 2001 - AUD 1.0 = USD 0.4833 May 9 - AUD 1.0 = USD 0.5198


CAUL Organisation: CAUL Organisation President - Helen Hayes (elected 1998) Executive Committee (elected) CEIRC Committee (election/nomination) Office staff 2 FTE (5/95, 6/98, 4/01) Secretariat, Committee Support, Cooperative Activities (Statistics, NBS, Performance Indicators, CISC), Liaison/Representation, Current awareness, Web site, CEIRC program


CEIRC (CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee): CEIRC (CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee) NPRF funds $2m 1993-1996 for datasets “Trials” of ISI Current Contents, Academic Press IDEAL, IAC Expanded Academic ASAP, etc Evolved into consortial purchasing Committee recommends policy to CAUL CAUL Office handles day-to-day Now includes CSIRO, CONZUL (+14 total) CEIRC Levy


CEIRC (2): CEIRC (2) Guidelines for external participants Guidelines for licences - no strict model Checklist for “negotiations” but No preferred pricing model No minimum participation No schedule of negotiations


CAUL Office : CAUL Office Instigation via member, publisher or office Distribution of information re product, licence, price & trial via email list Negotiation/liaison re price & conditions Maintenance of details on web site http://www.caul.edu.au/datasets/ Participation list, IP addresses, contacts Invoicing & payments


Decision-Making: Decision-Making Self-selected consortium vs National Site Licence “Buying club” Changing environment --> Changing decision-making processes Each product assessed independently Licence conditions Overlap between products Choice of interfaces


Decision-Making (2): Decision-Making (2) Datasets Coordinator - coordinates communication & decision by given date! Acquisitions? Discipline-based liaison personnel? Electronic information coordinator? Chief librarian?


Cost-Sharing : Cost-Sharing Determined by Publisher & passed on to group eg Subscription history (current spend) Carnegie Classification Percentage discount by volume # Institutions # Databases # Titles EFTSU / FTE - all or discipline-specific


Cost-Sharing (2): Cost-Sharing (2) Determined within Consortium eg Equal share FTE-based Usage-based Resources budget, or … a combination of the above eg 50% equal share (entry level) + 50% FTE-based … or what it is worth to the institution eg NAAL (Alabama)


Cost-Sharing (3): Cost-Sharing (3) Gaining consensus Current Contents - 50% fixed + 4 tiers based on FTE (+ choice of interface) MathSciNet - Costs of current subscribers reducing with added subscribers ProQuest5000 - Minimum entry cost per institution + Minimum total cost


CAUL Agreements 1996-: CAUL Agreements 1996- 32 agreements, 18 full-text, 4 factual databases, the rest bibliographic Half commenced in 2000 or later burgeoning of available electronic products increasing willingness of publishers to deal with consortia Billing handled centrally (15) local office or agent Average number of participants 20 Highest number 40 (ProQuest5000)


Issues : Issues Publishers Site definition (16 Oz single-campus univ) Bundling print with online Maintaining bottom line Premium for electronic and/or enhanced product eg WoS Access to “purchased” data & archiving


Issues (2): Issues (2) Members Variation in size / wealth / research emphasis / discipline base Cost-sharing parameters Competition “Subsidy” of less well-resourced institutions Relative gain, rather than the NAAL ideal Agreement on priorities


Issues (3): Issues (3) Subscription Agents Publishers dealing directly Overlap with consortia Invoicing members Paying publisher Finding new roles Agent for consortia Collections management and support


Some Approaches : Some Approaches Tender for journal collection eg California State University Mega-consortium eg Solinet Managing Agent eg NESLI / Swets / Manchester Computing ICOLC Consortia Advisory Board (BHIL) VADL - usage-based multi-institution licence


Pause ....: Pause .... Very similar deals being done by a wide variety of consortia National Site Licence - an ideal which requires either top-sliced or additional funding or internal agreement about what is wanted and how much the individual institutions are prepared to pay for it


… and progress : … and progress Cheaper than list prices Access to more titles Shift in licence conditions eg ILL, course packs, etc Unbundling of print from electronic More trust --> Simpler licences


Cooperative Opportunities: Cooperative Opportunities Shared ILMS eg Unilinc Joint and/or bulk purchasing/processing eg WAGUL e-TOC (MEADS) Reciprocal borrowing/auto document delivery (QULOC) Shared development eg JEDDS (Ariel), LIDDAS, ADT, AEVL, AgriGate, MetaWeb, ALEG


International Opportunities: International Opportunities ICOLC 4, 1998 SoliNet plus New Zealand Fiji ….