UKSG Licensing Skills for Librarians online seminar 2025
2025-04-29 11:00 - 14:00 (Europe/London)
This seminar is designed for librarians involved in e-resource purchasing in academic institutions; specifically for librarians in these institutions who are being trained to undertake purchasing roles will also benefit from attending. The seminar will take place online over two half days, although you may want to set aside some reading time prior/in between the sessions.

When

Where

Tuesday 29 April, 2025 – 11:00 BSTtoWednesday 30 April 2024 – 14:00 BST

Online United Kingdom

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About the Event

Registration

Registration is now open – please register for your place here

UKSG membership rate: £70+VAT

Non-membership rate: £82.00+VAT

Details of membership can be found at https://www.uksg.org/join

Course Information

Electronic publishing has brought huge changes to learned information provision and to the role of librarians and other information professionals. ‘Ownership’ of content is no longer a simple matter of receiving and storing print copies on a shelf. Publishers and intermediaries license access to electronic resources, and so the licence has become a feature of most sales agreements. Information professionals consequently need to become familiar with the terms and conditions of licences, their meaning and their implications. This two-day online course will address these issues using a mixture of presentations, Q&A and some homework.

Why should you attend?

The online course is designed specifically for librarians involved in e-resource purchasing in academic institutions. Librarians in these institutions who are being trained to undertake purchasing roles will also benefit from attending. Participants will gain a good understanding of the key issues surrounding publisher licensing and negotiations, together with practical skills and knowledge which they will be able to use in their professional lives.

Jisc Collections has an international reputation for expertise in the negotiation and licensing of scholarly online resources. It currently manages around 200 agreements, and its model licence is seen as a ‘gold standard’ across the academic sector.

DO NOTE: We welcome participants from all corners of the globe to join our seminars, however speakers and topics for this event are generally UK focussed and times are in GMT, if you have any doubt about the suitability, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course participants will:

understand the key issues surrounding publisher licensing, and how these impact libraries

be familiar with the concept of a Model Licence and the important clauses in publisher licences

be familiar with the principles of successful negotiation of terms and conditions in the context of licensing online information resources

understand the fundamental dos and don’ts of e-resource licence negotiation

be aware of the legal implications that licence terms have for their institution

understand the latest issues and concerns related to licensing

be aware of the issues around licensing for additional users, including those at partner organisations.

Accessibility

UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our intention where possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition, we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.

If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this seminar/webinar, we welcome you to contact us directly at events@uksg.org prior to booking your place.

Programme

Day 1 Day 2

Time

Programme

Speakers

11:00

Welcome and Introduction Note: All times GMT

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

11.05

Session 1: Introduction to licences

Why do we need licences for the online content we subscribe to, and what problems do they cause us?

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

11.15

Session 2: 10 things to look for in a licence

We look at the key clauses and information any good licence should include.

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

11.45

Session 3: A closer look at licences

Part 1. How to navigate your way through a licence and find the important stuff.

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

12.00

Lunch Break / Time to reflect on the previous session

13.00

Session 3: A closer look at licences

Part 2. How to navigate your way through a licence and find the important stuff.

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

14.00

Summary of the day and wrap up

You may wish to pencil in some time following the session to review today’s learning and prepare for tomorrow’s session.

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

Time

Programme

Speakers

11.00

Welcome and introduction to day 2

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

11.05

Session 4: License negotiation

How can we negotiate with suppliers about their terms and conditions? Looking at TDM and AI.

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

11.30

Session 5: Licensing for Users Overseas

A look at Jisc’s approach to licensing for TNE and partners in the UK.

Greg Ince

Jisc

See Biography
Greg Ince is a Licensing Manager, delivering the optional Jisc service, Transnational education licensing. He is a librarian with 20 years’ experience of working in higher education libraries. Prior to joining Jisc in 2017 to work on the TNE Licensing Pilot, Greg worked for De Montfort University, Royal Holloway, the University of Bath, and most recently, the University of the West of England (UWE), for 10 years. At UWE, he was responsible for content acquisition and subscription, including managing discovery and ongoing access arrangements, with an ongoing focus on licensing for UWE’s onshore and offshore collaborative provision scenarios.

12.00

Lunch Break

13.00

Session 6: Licensing scenarios for additional Users

Group exercises and discussion addressing licensing for different types of additional user groups (inc. partner organisations overseas and in the UK)

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

13.45

Conclusion and wrap up

Ben Taplin

Jisc

See Biography
Ben Taplin has been Jisc’s contract and licensing specialist for ten years. He is also a member of Jisc’s Artificial Intelligence group and the ICOLC AI Taskforce.

Feedback

All i all a very good seminar, I learned a lot and found the information very useful.

Really, helpful and informative, thank you!
Previous delegate

Contact

General queries – events@uksg.org

Cancellations

The closing date for cancellations is Monday 7th April, after which date cancellations will not be eligible for a refund. Cancellation should be sent into writing to events@uksg.org.

The UKSG terms and conditions can be found here

The UKSG code of conduct can be found here and UKSG terms and conditions here

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UKSG Open Educational Resources online seminar 2025
2025-05-07 10:00 - 16:30
This seminar takes place over one day looking at how resources are being developed and promoted, and how others have approached the creation and management of OER policies. We welcome speakers from the UK and USA to this session.

When

Where

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 – 10:00 BSTto 16:30 BST

Online United Kingdom

About

Sponsors

Programme

Feedback

Registration

Contact

Map

Share

About the Event

Registration

Registration is now open, please click here to register

UKSG membership rate: £70+VAT

Non-membership rate: £82.00+VAT

Details of membership can be found at https://www.uksg.org/join

Course Information

The next few years will see a continual increase in the amount of materials created by educational and aligned organisations, much of which will be accessible to peers, students and the general population across the globe. The opportunities for sharing Open Education Resources are greater than ever. This widespread change has led to many ethical and practical questions around ownership, hosting and copyright. This seminar explores the current OER landscape, looks at how some of these issues are being addressed, and highlights the opportunities presented by the growth of OER resources.

Why should you attend?

Delegates will have a chance to hear from a variety of different perspectives, which will include how open resources can support teaching and learning, how resources are being developed and promoted, and how others have approached the creation and management of OER policies. This course is aimed at anyone who is keen to understand more about Open Educational Resources, with a view to creating them, making use of them for teaching and learning, or creating policies around them.

DO NOTE: We welcome participants from all corners of the globe to join our seminars, however speakers and topics for this event are generally UK focused and times are in BST, if you have any doubt about the suitability, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Who should you attend?

The seminar will be of interest to those working across the scholarly information industry, including publishers, librarians, teachers, lecturers, learning technologists, research support staff, other aligned professionals and students.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course participants will:

Gain a wide overview of the current OER environment across the UK and US

Learn about the opportunities and challenges of implementing an OER policy at an organisational and national level

Discover benefits and opportunities of engaging with the creation of OER content

Attendee Information

The webinar tool we use is Go to Webinar. To test your system ahead of time visit https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee

Recording

The sessions will be recorded and available to all registered delegates after the event, so if you unable to join us live or want to review any presentation this will be available.

Accessibility

UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our intention where possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition, we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.

If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this seminar, we welcome you to contact us directly at events@uksg.org prior to booking your place.

Programme

Morning session Afternoon session

Time

Programme

Speakers

10:00

Welcome and Introduction Note: All times BST

Klara Finnimore

Royal College of Art (RCA)

See Biography
Klara is the Journals and E-Resources Librarian at the Royal College of Art. She has responsibility for managing and developing the RCA’s online collection of journals and databases, as well as maintaining the current and archived print journal collections. She also contributes to the work of a number of committees across the library sector.

Ai Gooch

University of Essex

See Biography
Ai is the Assistant Director (University Collections and Digital Services) at the University of Essex. She oversees the University Collections including University’s Special Collections, Archives, and Art Collections, while also leading the development of digital infrastructure and services. She previously worked as the Academic Liaison Librarian (Business and Law) at the University of Essex. Her contributions include initiatives such as Decolonising the Library, Skills @ Essex, and the Race Equality Charter.

10.15

Session 1: The Death of the Textbook

As an educational tool, the commercial textbook in its traditional form is obsolete and yet the sector remains wedded to an outdated paradigm that serves neither the needs of the student or the academy. What are the alternatives? We present the results of a pilot programme at Coventry University where the commercial textbook has been discarded in favour of a shift to Open Content. Is this the beginning of a (re)new(ed) paradigm or a Canutian exercise in futility?

Phil Brabban

Phil Brabban

Coventry University

See Biography
Having initially trained and worked as a Secondary School English and Drama teacher, Phil swiftly made the decision to alter course, changing career to follow a life of excitement and high adventure in Librarianship. He began his career at Durham University in 1999 where he worked for several years, most significantly as an ‘accidental’ Systems Librarian. Phil has worked at the University Library at Coventry since 2007 in a number of leadership roles and was appointed University Librarian in 2014. Now, as Chief Librarian, he carries responsibility for the operational and strategic direction of the service across the entire University Group. Phil has been a member of SCONUL’s Executive Board since 2022 and is co-Chair of the SCONUL Content Strategy group.

Dal Badesha

Coventry University

See Biography
Dal is the Head of Learning Resources and Student Experience at Coventry University, focusing on Open Educational Resources. With a career in academic libraries spanning nearly three decades, Dal began as a library assistant in 1996 and has since held various roles, including Project Manager for one of Europe’s largest textbook schemes. Passionate about accessible learning, she is dedicated to enhancing student experiences through innovative resource strategies.

10.40

Session 2: Taking a strategic approachto embedding the institutional use of OERs

In 2022 the University of Sheffield approved an OER policy, supporting the re-use, re-purposing and adaptation of existing OER, and the creation of new OERs. To implement the policy, a proactive approach was taken, with the formation of a cross-faculty OER Working Group. This group was tasked with promoting policy awareness, fostering an OER community, identifying guidance and support for staff and making recommendations in support of the policy. In this talk we will review the steps taken so far to move to a position where the use of OER is embedded as standard practice at Sheffield.

Louise Robson

University of Sheffield

See Biography
Louise Robson is a Professor of Digital Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Sheffield, with over 30 years experience in teaching. A PFHEA and an NTF, she is known for her work around using digital technologies to enhance the student learning experience, e.g. lecture capture and active learning. She is also a strong advocate for the use of inclusive approaches in student learning. As the chair of the University of Sheffield OER Working Group, she leads the group to deliver the actions needed to embed the use of OERs into learning and teaching activities at the university.

11.05

Session 3: Reflections on building a European Open Education Network: Community as a keystone to consolidate Open Educational Practice in the educational space

This presentation reflects on the experiences of building a European Open Education Network through the ENCORE+ project. ENCORE+ has built a community of more than 500 active members since 2020. We have done this by researching, having constant dialogue with relevant stakeholders, and collecting and sharing good practice examples, strategies and innovation on key topics such as Policies & Practice, Innovation & business models, Quality and Technology. We have developed, co-created and shared our knowledge with our network in a community of practice through a series of reports, network events, focus groups, workshops and contributions to conferences

Orna Farrell

Dublin City University (DCU)

See Biography
Dr Orna Farrell is Associate Professor of Education, specialising in digital education based in the School of Policy Practice, Institute of Education in Dublin City University (DCU). Orna holds a PhD in Education from Trinity College Dublin. Orna is programme chair of the B.Sc. in Education and Training.Orna’s research interests centre around digital innovative pedagogy and include online pedagogy, learning design, digital assessment, eportfolio and open education. She has a growing publication record in her fields of interest, including a range of book chapters, journal articles, invited presentations and conference papers. She has published in high-ranking journals such as Distance Education, the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Research in Learning Technology, and the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. Orna is a fellow of EDEN Digital Learning Europe.

11.30

Break

11.40

Session 4: Open for Good: Strategic support for OER at the University of Edinburgh

At the University of Edinburgh we believe that OER and open education are strongly in keeping with our institutional vision; to discover knowledge and make the world a better place. During this session we’ll be exploring how Edinburgh has embedded strategic support for OER across the institution, through the implementation of a permissive OER Policy, supported by a range of central services. We’ll introduce case studies, highlight the importance of developing copyright literacy skills, touch on our commitment to student engagement and co-creation, and provide recommendations that other institutions can follow to enable them to adapt and adopt this model.

Charlie Farley

University of Edinburgh

See Biography
Stephanie (Charlie) Farley has worked in Higher Education Libraries and Learning Technology services for fifteen years, and has spent the last decade embedding strategic support in policy and technologies, training, supporting, and collaborating with staff and students in the creation and use of Open Education Resources at The University of Edinburgh. [View the OEGlobal award winning collection of student made OERs on our TES repository: University of Edinburgh’s Open.Ed Open Educational Resources on TES.]

12.05

Session 5: Building it Together: Developing an Open Textbook community of practice in the UKThe Open Education Network (OEN) is a mature community of practice in the US, which has over 1,800 member institutions and is committed to making open the default in higher education. Brunel University of London Library joined the OEN in 2023 and has been collaborating with library colleagues across the UK to convert the OEN model to a UK environment. This talk will report on the academic engagement and adoption strategies applied at Brunel and the formation of a new UK community, in which librarians across the UK and Ireland are given peer support to develop their open practice

David Beales

Brunel University of London

See Biography
David Beales is the University Librarian at Brunel University of London. David has a range of experience in US and UK higher education, research and parliamentary library environments and most recently worked at the House of Commons Library as the Head of Research Information. David’s areas of expertise include Open Education Resources, collection evaluation and Big Deal modelling.

12.30

Lunch Break

Time

Programme

Speakers

13.30

Welcome back

Tim Leonard

Lancaster University

See Biography
Tim Leonard is Associate Director: Space, Experience and Innovation at Lancaster University Library. He oversees the development of the Library’s learning spaces, its frontline services team and digital systems.Tim has worked in academic libraries for over 20 years and has held positions at Lancaster, the University of Bolton, Manchester Metropolitan University and Cardiff University. He is a member of UKSG’s Education and Events Subcommittee and represents Lancaster in a range of groups with RLUK and Academic Libraries North. His professional interests include learning space design, environmental sustainability and innovative technologies in libraries.

Andy Tattersall

University of Sheffield

See Biography
Andy Tattersall is an Information Specialist at the Division of Population Health at The University of Sheffield. Andy writes, teaches and delivers talks and training about research communications (including podcasting, blogging, social media, video/animation, infographics), digital academia, open research, web and information science and altmetrics. In particular, their application for research, teaching, learning, knowledge exchange and collaboration. Andy received a Senate Award from The University of Sheffield for his pioneering work on Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) in 2013 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Andy was named in Jisc’s Top 10 Social Media Superstars. He was a member of the Cilip Digital Technology Committee (MmIT) for 10 years (2 as Chair) and is a member of the UKSG Events and Education Committee. Andy co-wrote and edited a book on Altmetrics for Facet Publishing which is aimed at researchers and librarians. https://linktr.ee/andy_tattersall

13.35

Session 6: Games as OERs: putting the fun in fundamental discussions

In this session we will discuss our process towards game creation for educational purposes, and the challenges and advantages games as Open Educational Resources (OERs) create. We will also explore the value of using gamification while developing OERs and walk the audience through the resources we have created, how they are used and where they can be found

Katrine Sundsbø

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

See Biography
Katrine is a Community Manager at DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). She has worked in open access and scholarly communications for over eight years, and have frequently used gamification in workshops and events to engage others with important topics related to open research. Katrine is the creator of the Open Access Escape Room, Open Access Mystery and co-creator of Copyright Dough (with Hannah Crago) and Open Science in Peril, Open Educational Resources Escape Room and ‘What about Open Science’ (with Aisling Coyne and Dr. Sarah Coombs). All games are of course created as Open Educational Resources.

Aisling Coyne

Technological University Dublin

See Biography
Aisling Coyne is the Open Scholarship Librarian for Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) where she manages the institutional repository, Arrow, and the Diamond journals published through it; engages in outreach and promotion of Open Scholarship; delivers training to academics, staff, students, and researchers on a variety of Open topics; among other things. Aisling is a member of two Library Association of Ireland special interest groups (Library Publishing and Open Scholarship); Irish Open Access Publishers; National Open Research Forum project SCOIR; is a founding member and co-chair of OSCAIL, among other groups.​​Aisling has a very special interest in OER, Games and Gamification, creating Open Scholarship games with Sarah Coombs and Katrine Sundsbø since 2022.

Sarah Coombs

Digital Competency Centre for Practice-Oriented Research/ Saxion University of Applied Sciences

See Biography
Sarah Coombs is Content Coordinator for the Digital Competency Centre for Practice Oriented Research (DCC-PO), and the Open Science Advisor for Saxion University of Applied Sciences and for the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (NAUAS). She has completed PhD with the Centre for Science and Technology at the Leiden University looking at how the impact of UAS research can be evaluated. She enjoys being creative in all kinds of ways including thinking of new ways to present Open Science and research support with Aisling Coyne and Katrine Sundsbø

14.00

Session 7: Making OA textbooks a reality

Rupert Gatti

Open Book Publishers

See Biography
Rupert Gatti is a Fellow in Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge and co-founder of Open Book Publishers – a non-profit open access scholarly book publisher. He is also a Steward (Trustee) of the Open Book Collective – a charity facilitating collective library funding for “Diamond” open access books – and an active participant within the Copim community developing open infrastructures to support OA book publishing.

14.25

Session 8: Open Education as Action

Open education is a good idea – there are very few people who think otherwise. But if we want our instructors to act differently – to engage in open educational practices that benefit our students – then we need to go beyond advocating for the idea of open education. We need concrete actions that will empower, engage, and support our instructors to change their practices. Dr. David Ernst discusses how the Open Education Network community helps its members take action to advance open education.

David Ernst

Open Education Network

See Biography
David Ernst is the Chief Information Officer and graduate faculty member at the College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. He is the director of the Center for Open Education and holds a PhD in Learning Technologies. David is the Executive Director of the Open Education Network, a community of open education professionals representing over 1,800 higher education institutions. He also has experience and passion for intercultural understanding, faculty development, and the improvement of educational practices

14.50

Break

15.00

Session 9: Opening Learning For All: MERLOT’s & SkillsCommons’ Open Educational Resources, Practices, and Services.

With access to the internet, academic education and workforce development can be open to all whose learning opportunities have been limited by economics, cultures, politics, and more. Free and open educational resources are not sufficient to transform educational opportunities for learners, teachers and institutions. Open educational practices and services are essential to empower and accelerate educational opportunities. The presentation will highlight MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) and SkillsCommons free and open libraries of resources, practices, and services, with examples of individual, disciplinary, and institutional initiatives to provide affordable learning solutions for all.

Gerry Hanley

MERLOT & SKillsCommons

See Biography
Gerry Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org). At California State University Long Beach, Gerry is the Director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility and Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Gerry’s previous positions included Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the California State University Chancellor’s Office, Director of Strategic Planning and Director of the Center for Faculty Development at CSULB. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Experimental/Cognitive Psychology.

15.25

Session 10 : Beyond Affordability: The Value that Open Educational Practice (and Resources!) Can Bring to your Faculty and Learners

OER is understood as a no-cost option for student that increases access at the start of the term. More than that, OER can provide a foundation for developing curriculum that can is adapted to learner contexts, to regional contexts, and that will resonate with students at a deeper level. This session will explore ways that OER can be leveraged to improve teaching and learning beyond affordability.

Mindy Newfarmer

Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)

See Biography
Melinda Newfarmer brings over 25 years of experience in educational technology, product development, and editorial management to ISKME and OER Commons. At ISKME, Melinda runs the services group, which includes platform and tools development, professional learning in open education, and library services. Each team in the services group strives to further ISKME’s purpose of building participatory, equitable access to education. Prior to joining ISKME in 2014, Melinda worked at Stanford Libraries developing an eBook platform for scholarly communications and Cengage Learning in editorial and product management for higher education.

15.50

Panel Session

16.25

Closing remarks and wrap up

Feedback

Really, helpful and informative, thank you!
Previous delegate

Contact

General queries – events@uksg.org

Cancellations

The closing date for cancellations is Friday 11th April, after which date cancellations will not be eligible for a refund. Cancellation should be sent into writing to events@uksg.org. All registrants will be sent a link to a recording for their personal use after the event.

The UKSG terms and conditions can be found here

The UKSG code of conduct can be found here and UKSG terms and conditions here

Share this Event

Please help us by letting your colleagues and friends know about our event. Thank you.

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UKSG Introduction to E-Resources Online Seminar 2025
2025-06-24 10:00 - 2025-06-26 12:30
This two-part online event has been adapted from UKSG’s successful and long-running one-day seminar and aims to present a practical introductory overview of all aspects of e-resources management, encompassing e-journals, e-books and bibliographic and full-text databases. Taking place as two morning sessions on Tuesday 24th June & Thursday 26th June.

When

Where

Tuesday 24 June, 2025 – 10:00 BSTtoThursday 26 June 2025 – 12:30 BST

Online United Kingdom

About

Programme

Feedback

Registration

Contact

Map

Share

About the Event

Registration

Registration is now open – please register for your place here

Fee(s)

UKSG membership rate: £70+VAT

Non-membership rate: £82.00+VAT

If you are unsure if you have member please click here for the latest membership list

Details of membership can be found at https://www.uksg.org/join

Course Summary

This two-part online event has been adapted from UKSG’s successful and long-running one-day seminar and aims to present a practical introductory overview of all aspects of e-resources management, encompassing e-journals, e-books and bibliographic and full-text databases.

The emphasis is on developing a sound basic understanding of the details of e-resources handling in order to promote efficient and informed working practices. A wide range of day-to-day issues will be covered, with time devoted to recognising and resolving the problems that can arise at the boundaries between publishers, intermediaries and libraries, and addressing business models such as open access. In addition, the seminar will provide a forum for a virtual group discussion on the current issues and opportunities offered by e-books.

Delegates will be able to air and exchange views in the discussion session after each presentation. The seminar will be delivered over two mornings, and delegates will be asked to use the time in between sessions to reflect on some of the issues raised.

Who should attend?

Designed particularly for staff who are new to working with e-resources, whether from a publisher, an intermediary or a library, this seminar may also be of interest to those looking to consolidate and update their e-resources knowledge.

We welcome participants from all corners of the globe to join our seminars, however speakers and topics are generally UK focussed, if you have any doubt about the suitability please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Learning Objectives

To gain practical tips on managing e-resources which can be applied in the workplace

To gain a basic understanding of the serials supply chain and the factors influencing it, including Open Access

To understand and learn how to build relationships between publishers, intermediaries and libraries

To learn how to have informed conversations with customers/suppliers

To gain insight into the practical aspects of managing e-books

To share experiences with other delegates and discuss questions and challenges which arise during the seminar

Course level and previous knowledge required

Introductory and non-intensive, entry level training for the beginner, novice or returner.

Recording

The sessions will be recorded and available to all registered delegates after the event, so if you unable to join us live or want to review any presentation this will be available.

Accessibility

UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our intention where possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition, we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.

If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this seminar/webinar, we welcome you to contact us directly at events@uksg.org prior to booking your place.

Programme

Day 1 Day 2

Time

Programme

Speakers

10:00

Welcome and Introduction Note: All times BST

Richard Bramwell

EBSCO Information Services

See Biography
Richard Bramwell is an Account Manager at EBSCO Information Services with 10 years’ experience of working in the Library Industry consulting in Discovery, Research workflow and content. Richard is also a member of the UKSG Education Committee.

Klara Finnimore

Royal College of Art (RCA)

See Biography
Klara is the Journals and E-Resources Librarian at the Royal College of Art. She has responsibility for managing and developing the RCA’s online collection of journals and databases, as well as maintaining the current and archived print journal collections. She also contributes to the work of a number of committees across the library sector.

10.15

Managing E-resources – Everything everywhere all at once

A brief introduction to the life-cycle of managing e-resources such as journals, databases and other online tools. The talk will look at the full life-cycle from purchase to making content discoverable and making renewal decisions. I will try to bust some jargon and offer hints and tips to help make the process easier to manage.

Ruth Smalley

Edge Hill University

See Biography
Ruth is the Subscriptions and Licensing Manager at Edge Hill University. Ruth has had a varied career with roles in PR and teaching, before a career change took her to working in public libraries and then moving into higher education libraries. Ruth has a particular interest in evidence based collection decisions and is never happier then when she has a problem that requires a new spreadsheet! Ruth lives in Warrington and enjoys making jewellery and clothes in her spare time.

11.10

Break

11.30

Buying and Managing E-Books

A look at the wide variety of ways that Libraries can acquire E-Books, detailing how they are managed, and an exploration of E-Book activity across the sector.

Anthony Sinnott

University of York

See Biography
Anthony is Access and Procurement Development Manager at University of York. He oversees the purchase of print & electronic resources, the management of subscriptions & databases, and the operation of the reading list system. Anthony’s key focus is on identifying innovative purchasing models that ensure maximum access to resources and building positive relationships with suppliers. Anthony is a member of the Joint Consortia Agreement Contract Management Group, Academic Libraries North CoP Group, and sits on the National Acquisitions Group Executive Committee as Treasurer.

12.15

Wrap up to day 1 & preparing for day 2

Time

Programme

Speakers

10.00

Introduction and recap of day 1

Klara Finnimore

Royal College of Arts

See Biography
Klara is the Journals and E-Resources Librarian at the Royal College of Art. She has responsibility for managing and developing the RCA’s online collection of journals and databases, as well as maintaining the current and archived print journal collections. She also contributes to the work of a number of committees across the library sector.

Richard Bramwell

EBSCO Information Services

See Biography
Richard Bramwell is an Account Manager at EBSCO Information Services with 9 years’ experience of working in the Library Industry consulting in Discovery, Research workflow and content. Richard is also a member of the UKSG Education Committee

10.15

E-Books a roundtable led by the chair

A forum in which to explore e-books – topics, problems, issues and opportunities for the community.

Ruth Smalley

Edge Hill University

See Biography
Ruth is the Subscriptions and Licensing Manager at Edge Hill University. Ruth has had a varied career with roles in PR and teaching, before a career change took her to working in public libraries and then moving into higher education libraries. Ruth has a particular interest in evidence based collection decisions and is never happier then when she has a problem that requires a new spreadsheet! Ruth lives in Warrington and enjoys making jewellery and clothes in her spare time.

Anthony Sinnott

University of York

See Biography
Anthony is Access and Procurement Development Manager at University of York. He oversees the purchase of print & electronic resources, the management of subscriptions & databases, and the operation of the reading list system. Anthony’s key focus is on identifying innovative purchasing models that ensure maximum access to resources and building positive relationships with suppliers. Anthony is a member of the Joint Consortia Agreement Contract Management Group, Academic Libraries North CoP Group, and sits on the National Acquisitions Group Executive Committee as Treasurer.

10.40

Break

10.55

Understanding the nuances of publishing and Introduction to Elsevier resources supporting development of Library professionals

Denis Reidy

Elsevier

See Biography
Denis Reidy , born in Ireland, graduated from University College Cork in 2005 with a PhD in Materials Chemistry. Following academia, Denis worked in various international companies practising business skills including product development, regulatory affairs, project management and materials procurement. In 2010 Denis joined Elsevier and worked at various positions supporting databases and services within the Life Science and Research Intelligence portfolios His current Customer Success Manager position supports the full suite of Elsevier portfolios for the United Kingdom and Ireland region.

11.30

Intermediaries and their services

The development of intermediaries, the role of the intermediary and a review of the new players and the growing range of online access services offered.

Richard Bramwell

EBSCO Information Services

See Biography
Richard Bramwell is an Account Manager at EBSCO Information Services with 9 years’ experience of working in the Library Industry consulting in Discovery, Research workflow and content. Richard is also a member of the UKSG Education Committee

12.10

An overview and a final summing up

Feedback

Thank you, this was really helpful. It has increased my awareness of DDA, EBA, OA and Read & Publish agreements. It has given me a snap shot of where libraries and e-resource providers are at in the world today.

Previous delegate

I enjoyed it. Found it very useful, the chairs were very good. Panel discussion where they shared experience was very useful, and it was also good to hear about things from the perspective of an Aggregator and Publisher to give a rounded view. As someone new to Academic libraries it provided a really good introduction.

Previous delegate

Contact

General queries – events@uksg.org

Cancellations

The closing date for cancellations is Tuesday 3rd June, after which date cancellations will not be eligible for a refund. Cancellation should be sent into writing to events@uksg.org.

The UKSG terms and conditions can be found here

The UKSG code of conduct can be found here and UKSG terms and conditions here

NB: UKSG reserves the right to alter or vary the programme due to events or circumstances beyond its reasonable control without being obliged to refund monies.

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UKSG Usage data for decision making online seminar 2025
2025-11-11 12:30 - 2025-11-12 12:30
This seminar is aimed at those responsible for collecting, analysing and making recommendations based on usage data, whether in a library setting or within a publishing organisation. This online seminar will take place over two days 11th (12:30 start) & 12th November (9:00 start), for more details please visit the programme section below.

When

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 – 12:30 GMTtoWednesday, November 12, 2025 – 12:30 GMT

Where

OnlineUnited Kingdom

About

Programme

Feedback

Registration

Contact

Share

About the Event

Registration

click here to register.

Event Summary

Those with a responsibility for overseeing the management of library collections have more access than ever to statistical data to assist with evaluation and to justify return on investment, and enhancement of the user experience. Understanding the library’s use of this data is also vital for publishers. Advances in standardisation led by the COUNTER initiative have made statistics more accessible and reliable as a basis for decision making.

Increasingly, libraries are being asked to make extremely difficult decisions about the priorities for their spending within a strategic context. Although this presents huge challenges, it can also be an impetus to change the ways in which services are provided. Publishers need to be aware of what statistics librarians are looking at and how they are being used to inform collection development.

This seminar provides illustrations by expert decision makers on how statistics are used to make strategic decisions. It will also present the challenges, such as demonstrating value and presenting data to different audiences. Future developments within the field will also be addressed, together with considerations of how these will impact on decision making in the future, for example new approaches to analytics. There will be discussion on how the development of open access is impacting on usage behaviour and influencing considerations for collection development.

Delegates will have the opportunity to reflect on the role of statistics in the broader context of further and higher education, and the culture of assessment that is becoming increasingly prominent within the sector. Delegates will be encouraged to actively participate throughout the day.

Who should attend

This seminar is aimed at both those in libraries who need to analyse or interpret usage data to support decision making about resources and collections, within a strategic context. It will be of interest to those with a responsibility for overseeing the management and evaluation of library collections in the further and higher education sector, and who need to demonstrate impact and value to senior leadership teams, rather than those involved in the operational role. It may also be of interest to those working in other areas of the scholarly information industry. It will also be of importance to publishers who need to understand the collection development decisions of their customers.

Please note: This seminar does not cover the practical aspects of collecting usage data, or of creating reports. These topics are covered by the UKSG Practical Usage Statistics for Librarians seminar, a hands-on workshop on gathering and manipulating usage statistics.

Both days will be recorded and available for playback on demand post event for registered delegates.

We welcome participants from all corners of the globe to join our seminars, however speakers and topics are generally UK focussed, if you have any doubt about the suitability please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Learning Objectives

Delegates will:

gain a greater insight into the wider environment and context in which usage statistics decision making is carried out and new approaches to this

learn about ways in which library resource usage statistics have been used by staff in university libraries to inform decision-making processes

develop an understanding of how usage statistics can be used to demonstrate value from a publisher perspective

gain knowledge of the impact of open access publishing on usage statistics and demonstrating value

Attendee Information

The webinar tool we use is Go to Webinar. To test your system ahead of time visit https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee

Accessibility

UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible.

Our intention were possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.

If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this seminar/webinar, we welcome you to contact events@uksg.org

Recording

The sessions will be recorded and available to all registered delegates only after the event, so if you unable to join us live or want to review any presentation this will be available.

Programme

Day 1 – 11 NovemberDay 2 – 12 November

Time

Programme

Speakers

12.30

Introduction & welcome

All times stated are GMT

Etienne Olsina

BibliU

Anja van Hoek

Programme Manager Amsterdam University Press

See Biography
Anja van Hoek has recently joined the organisation

Her previous role was as a Program Manager Online Resources at Brill, where she is overseeing Brill’s online publishing program. A major part of her role is the coordination of the various aspects – relating to Brill’s online publishing program – between publishing, sales and marketing. Working closely with the Data and Platform Teams within Brill’s Operation department she plays an important role in monitoring usage data.

12.40

COUNTER: the community standard for usage metrics

Not sure why we need normalised metrics? Unclear about the difference between an Investigation and a Request (or how those relate to views and downloads)? Can’t understand why metrics are missing from your standard views? This session will clear up the confusion with an introduction to the COUNTER Code of Practice for usage data.

Tasha Mellins-Cohen

COUNTER Metrics

See Biography
Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Executive Director at COUNTER Metrics and Founder of Mellins-Cohen Consulting, joined the scholarly publishing industry in 2001. She has held roles within learned societies and commercial publishers across operations, technology, editorial and executive functions, while donating time to key industry initiatives and bodies such as UKSG, ALPSP and STM. In 2020 she started consulting in response to requests for help in developing and implementing OA business models in not-for-profit groups. In 2022 she stepped up from volunteer to Director at COUNTER Metrics, the standard for usage metrics, alongside her consulting work

13.20

Under the COUNTER when usage data is harder to find

COUNTER stats are great for the majority of our journal and ebook holdings, but what about the resources which don’t supply COUNTER stats? As libraries are increasingly asked to give access to a range of non-traditional resources such as maps, business data and law sites, as well as specialist journals and magazine titles the job of gathering and analysing usage can be complex. This session will look at some of the other places Edge Hill goes hunting for usage, including directly from publishers websites, as well as using data from EZProxy to gain evidence of usage, as well as addressing some of the drawbacks to these methods.

.

Ruth Smalley

Edge Hill University

See Biography
Ruth is the Subscriptions and Licensing Manager at Edge Hill University. Ruth has had a varied career with roles in PR and teaching, before a career change took her to working in public libraries and then moving into higher education libraries. Ruth has a particular interest in evidence based collection decisions and is never happier then when she has a problem that requires a new spreadsheet or Power BI dashboard! Ruth lives in Warrington and enjoys making jewellery and clothes in her spare time.

14.00

Break

14.20

Using COUNTER with other data sources to answer essential library questions

In this session we’ll use real files to crossmatch usage (from a COUNTER Title Report) with pricing (from a publisher price list) to calculate cost per use. You’ll learn about named ranges, useful Excel functions, and how to use a pivot table.

Tasha Mellins-Cohen

COUNTER Metrics

See Biography
TBC.

15.00

Break

15.20

OER and the Impact of Affordable Course Materials on Students

The presentation will review survey findings of students indicating the consequences for their education when they can’t afford to purchase their course materials for their classes. The Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) initiative is an institutional program for campus faculty, staff, administrators, and students to choose no/low-cost course materials, including Open Educational Resources (OER). The presentation will provide an overview of MERLOT’s AL$ initiative, showcase Open Educational Practices for faculty adopting OER, and will review the economic value for students and the institution. The AL$ resources, tools, and templates are available for UKSG adoption and customization

Gerry Hanley

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)

See Biography

Gerry Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org) which provides free, online educational content in academic and workforce disciplines. At California State University Long Beach, Gerry is the Director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility. Gerry’s previous positions included Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the California State University Chancellor’s Office, designing and delivering strategic initiatives for improving teaching and learning with technologies for 23 campuses serving over 450,000 students. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Experimental Psychology.

15.50

Summary & close

Time

Programme

Speakers

9.00

Welcome

Nathan Newey

Brown Books

See Biography
Having worked in academic libraries for almost 30 years, I have had a change in direction and now work for Browns Books who are a leading supplier of monographs and e-books to all types of educational establishments in the UK and beyond. My role as Regional Area Manager for London still enables me to interact with libraries ensuring that Browns gives the best possible service to its customers.

Emma Nolin

Head of Information Resources and Scholarly Publishing Malmo University

See Biography
Emma Nolin is the head of Information Resources and Scholarly Publishing at Malmö University Library and has been at Malmö university since 2018. Operations in this department are among other things, print and electronic scholarly information recourses, Open access and scholarly publishing.

9.10

Different kinds of usage data to support information provision at Karolinska Institutet University Library

I will share a recent pilot we’ve done for a cross-comparison of usage data for acquisitions using COUNTER denials, ILL requests, citations, purchasing suggestions and more. For read access, KI Library has multiple levels of service we can provide for our users at different price points. With many different kinds of usage data that can potentially support decision making in this area, we wanted to see how we could use different kinds of usage data together in a more systematic way to catch emerging information needs

David Hahne

Karolinska Institutet

See Biography
David is an e-licensing librarian at Karolinska institutet – a medical university in Stockholm, Sweden. He joined KI Library as part of the acquisitions team in 2021. He has an interest in using data analysis and visualization to aid decision making and support the transition to Open Access.

09.50

Engagement ‘depth’ – using e-book usage data to try to improve student success

Universities have a lot of student data and ‘Learner Analytics’ can be used to try to improve student outcomes. Engagement data (e.g. attendance/ use of VLE) can give us ‘obvious’ red flags, but it can be difficult to quantify the ‘depth’ of student engagement. Library/ learning resources information may help with this. We know that use of our online e-book platform (BibliU) correlates with module outcomes. We will talk about how this data can be part of targeting comms, support and interventions for individual students and different student groups during the semester, to try to increase student success

Valerie Cox

Coventry University

See Biography
Originally a researcher in muscle physiology, Dr Val Cox has worked in academic lecturing/ leadership roles at Coventry University for 26 years. She transitioned to leading initiatives around timetabling/ attendance and engagement, including managing aspects of the Covid pandemic and associated switch to online learning. Her current role is Associate Director of the Strategic Planning and Insight Office, where she continues to develop use of student engagement data to provide ‘real time’ monitoring. She helped to implement the BibliU e-book platform and continues to work closely with Library colleagues to analyse the useage data

10.30

Break

11.00

The Open access citation advantage in the context of scholarly publishing at a higher education institution

Šárka Erben Johansson

Malmö University

See Biography
Šárka is a research librarian at Malmö University. Her areas of work are bibliometrics, publishing strategies and research support. Her main role is in supplying the university’s research units and researchers with bibliometric reports and analyses to support evidence based decision making.

11.30

Beyond the Numbers: Evaluating Ebook Usage Statistics in Practice

How can ebook usage statistics be turned into meaningful insights? In this session, I will present our routines for evaluating usage data, highlight common challenges, and show how the results inform decision-making and collection development..

Frida Rosengren

Lund University

See Biography
Frida Rosengren is a librarian at Lund University, working with electronic media acquisition and evaluation, publication support, teaching for doctoral and undergraduate students, and applying artificial intelligence in library services. She holds a PhD in Biology and a Master’s in Library and Information Science, combining subject expertise with broad experience in scholarly communication and digital resources

12.00

Summary & close

Feedback

The variety of perspectives made it really interesting
Previous delegate

Fantastic lineup. Learned from all presenters. A couple who really stood out were Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Aron Lindhagen, and Andrew Knight. Their presentations were particularly relevant to my work and they had information on specific, practical processes and tips.
Previous delegate

Intense and information-packed. The sessions were just long enough and being split between two days made it easier to focus (and also schedule around work).
Previous delegate

Registration

Monday, October 6, 2025 – 09:00 BST – Tuesday, November 11, 2025 – 09:00 GMT

£ 70.00

+14.00 VAT

Member

Register Now

£ 82.00

+16.40 VAT

Non-Member

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NB: UKSG reserves the right to alter or vary the programme due to events or circumstances beyond its reasonable control without being obliged to refund monies.

Contact

General queries – events@uksg.org

Please take a look at our code of conduct

Cancellations

The closing date for cancellations is Friday 17th October, after which date cancellations will not be eligible for a refund. Cancellation should be sent into writing to events@uksg.org. All registrants will be sent a link to the recording after the event for their personal viewing.

The UKSG terms and conditions can be found here

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