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Consortial Purchasing: the U.S. experience with electronic productsConsortial Purchasing: the U.S. experience with electronic products Julia A. Gammon Julia Gammon is Head, Acquisitions Department, The University of Akron, Bierce Library, Akron, Ohio 44325-1708, USA. E-mail: jgammon@uakron.edu Paper presented at the UKSG 21st Annual Conference, Exeter, April 1998 Abstract Rising costs and decreased purchasing power have forced libraries to share resources to meet the informational needs of their students and faculty. The incorporation of new technologies has allowed for the creation of consortia across large geographic areas; these technical advances provide a robust basis for greatly expanded access by users to library materials. This paper focuses on the U.S. experience, specifically with OhioLINK, the state-wide academic consortium of fifty-six libraries. Introduction In Ohio, back in the 1960s, a group of radical librarians attended numerous meetings in Columbus to work on a plan to revolutionize the world. These librarians were not anti-war protestors or environmentalists trying to save the great white whales; they wanted to transform the library arena by finding a way to share cataloguing records and library materials within the state of Ohio. The final product these radicals developed was named the Ohio College Library Center. While this name may not sound familiar, its initials are immediately recognizable. Today it is known as OCLC, a bibliographic utility that many librarians use. For all of OCLC�s success, however, it may be surprising to know that it never fulfilled one of the original purposes for which it was designed - a shared circulation system within the state, whereby Ohio libraries could freely lend and borrow materials from each other using a shared electronic database as a resource. So let us fast-forward through time from the 1960s to the 1980s to see what has happened in Ohio. What is OhioLINK? Ohio has created an Internet-based, electronic-library, information system that supports the mission of higher education within the state, called OhioLINK (short for Ohio Library and Information Network). This pioneering effort is a computer network of libraries and electronic information resources that offers access to nearly seventy research databases, to shared electronic journals, and to a combined central catalogue for most Ohio universities, colleges, community colleges, and the State Library. In addition, users have access to patron-initiated borrowing, which means that users of the central catalogue can initiate their own interlibrary loan requests. OhioLINK is a state-wide consortium whose goal is to provide easy access to information and rapid delivery of library materials throughout the state, offering a full complement of electronic services. For further information about OhioLINK, consult the web site at http://www.ohiolink.edu/ Why was it formed and how does it work? In the mid-1980s, there was an explosion of newly published information and a proliferation of new information formats. Users had trouble keeping up with all the technological changes, and it was difficult to secure rapid access to information across the state. The Ohio Board of Regents, the state-wide governing body for education, received requests from various colleges and universities for a total of forty two more miles of shelving, for new library buildings, and for twelve million dollars worth of new and upgraded automated library systems. There was also no state-wide circulation system to share materials, as had originally been envisioned when OCLC was developed. Rather than deal with these problems individually, the Ohio Board of Regents made the following decisions for all the state�s academic institutions:
In 1988, the OhioLINK co-operative venture was authorized, using funding from the state higher education budget. It currently consists of a membership of fifty-six institutions (with seventeen more scheduled to join in 1998), access for 4,500 simultaneous users, and 104 individual locations. It serves over 500,000 faculty, staff and students across the state. Supporting the network is a central office under the direction of Tom Sanville, and several committees and task forces that keep it functioning. The standing committees and their functions are:
What are some of OhioLINK�s accomplishments? First, OhioLINK�s central database was built, consisting of listings for fifty-six member institutions (with seventeen more to join in 1998, as previously noted). The database contains 6.4 million unique catalogue records, 3.6 million of which are held in only one library. 2.5 million searches were made on the database in 1997 (a ten percent increase over the total number of searches for the previous year). The central catalogue is widely used, primarily for patron on-line borrowing. The system began in 1994 with only eight institutions� holdings listed in the database, but had received 4,619 requests for materials by the first month. By 1997, those requests had increased to 534,000 requests for materials. Requests are still increasing yearly, by an average of twenty-one percent; eighty-five percent of the requests received are filled within two days. Finally, OhioLINK has achieved state-wide access to electronic information. In 1992, only two databases were available for public searching on the system. By 1998, sixty five databases (including Academic Press and Elsevier titles) were available; in 1997, 9,300,000 searches were performed on these databases. Building a core of electronic journals is one of OhioLINK�s strategic priorities. This includes the creation of a two-step program that would first build a critical mass of electronic journals accessible state-wide, and then measure their use and negotiate costs. The focus for the program is on commercial publishers, non-commercial publishers, and society publications. This focus on journals has to do with, among other reasons, controlling price increases, leveraging expenditures among libraries, improving state-wide access to information, providing a better value to libraries and users for money spent, and creating a bridge to the future. Selecting titles for state-wide use How, then, are titles selected for state-wide consortial use? How can fifty-six institutions possibly agree on which titles to purchase? In the early days of OhioLINK, the selection of new titles was simple, as most titles in electronic format were unique. To begin, the Co-operative Resources Information and Management Committee (CIRM) worked to identify and select for purchase a �wish list� of core titles. Thirty titles were then purchased for use across the state. This �wish list� method of acquiring titles for the consortium worked well during OhioLINK�s early years. But last year, OhioLINK moved into the better-organized mode of creating subject speciality groups for various disciplines. Each subject area group prioritizes the titles that it thinks important to each discipline. CIRM then reviews all the lists that are created by the subject groups, and tries to fill the gaps in the state-wide electronic collection. Once CIRM selects titles, they are brought to the director of OhioLINK, who begins negotiations with the provider. As negotiations continue, certain items in the contract may have to be discussed at various levels within the consortium. Occasionally, titles are selected because they come in the side door from publishers who offer OhioLINK deals that are too good to pass up. Generally, full-text databases of selected titles are preferred over citation databases. Not all titles selected for purchase by CIRM are bought, however. In some cases, a certain title is not selected because it is available only in CD-ROM and cannot be networked, or because a publisher does not wish to do business with consortia. Other reasons include high prices, difficulty of use with regard to interfaces, connections, and so forth, or licensing problems. Previously selected titles are reviewed with regularity by the CIRM committee to assure that titles purchased in past years are still relevant, and that the best products are available for users. CIRM continually looks for new titles which do the job better for the same money, or for a lower price. Often, the receipt of a new invoice listing a significantly higher price will force the committee to look into other options. Consortial licensing in OhioLINK OhioLINK�s mission and philosophy is to provide maximum access to information at an affordable, institutionally-funded rate. The problems OhioLINK faces are the same as those faced by libraries in the UK. Serials costs have exceeded the standard inflation rate, and, as a result, library materials budgets are overwhelmed. Consequently, universities have been forced to cancel subscriptions to keep their budgets under control, and can provide little, if any, monetary support for journals which cover new subject areas or emerging fields of study. Rampant inflation and less capital equal fewer materials for users. By creating a healthy environment for journals, OhioLINK aims to stabilize the number of journals purchased state-wide, to encourage the use of expensive resources, to attain better value for expenditure, and to take advantage of new technologies for improved access to resources across the state. Consortial purchases allow libraries to do this. Licensing electronic products When compared to the licensing of databases for individual libraries, the licensing of databases on a state-wide level has been accomplished at a fraction of the cost. This method of providing access for users is highly cost-effective and beneficial for smaller colleges and universities, or for those libraries with limited budgets. It also creates access to new titles that were not previously available to users, and makes them more accessible by more users. However, creating group licenses is a monumental task. Some of the current parameters for an OhioLINK group license include:
What is going on elsewhere in the U.S.? While the primary focus of this paper is a discussion of OhioLINK, OhioLINK is not the only initiative worthy of note. Keeping track of all the different consortia and electronic initiatives which exist in the U.S. can be similar to eating alphabet soup - the contents are many and varied. Two of the more prominent groups involved in this volatile and ever-changing field include:
Librarians in the U.S. are struggling with license agreements and negotiations for access to electronic resources. They now find that the greater part of their days are spent revising licenses, tracking them through their university�s required approval processes, and negotiating details with the various publishers and vendors that supply these products. Since most librarians obviously do not possess a law degree, it is useful to have a document to refer to for help in these matters. One of the key documents recently made available to librarians in the U.S. is "Principles on Licensing Electronic Resources ," written and endorsed by five library associations.1 This document has been invaluable in helping to educate librarians about dealing with licenses. A complete version of the document can be found at http://arl.cni.org/scomm/licensing/principles.html The fifteen principles put forth by the document are:
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