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W(h)ither the big deal Is e-journal purchase about to fragment?

Martin Gill Faculty Team Leader Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Team University of Leeds. W(h)ither the big deal Is e-journal purchase about to fragment?. Outline. What is the big deal about? Analysing the big deals at Leeds The future. Benefits.

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W(h)ither the big deal Is e-journal purchase about to fragment?

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  1. Martin Gill Faculty Team Leader Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Team University of Leeds W(h)ither the big dealIs e-journal purchase about to fragment?

  2. Outline • What is the big deal about? • Analysing the big deals at Leeds • The future

  3. Benefits • Increased and instant access to a wide range of information • 9000 to 35000 titles in a decade • Space savings • Reduced ILL costs • Ease of administration

  4. And the reality • Mergers • Transfers of titles • Archival rights • No cancellation deals • Link to historic print spend • Free trials • Late announcement of deals • Above inflation cost increases, exchange rates, VAT…..

  5. Wider environment • Browne report • Comprehensive spending review • Marketisation of Higher Education • Expectations of the digital generation

  6. The Leeds context • VC is Chair of Russell Group “It has taken more than 800 years to create one of the world's greatest education systems and it looks like it will take just six months to bring it to its knees” – Guardian 11th January 2010 • University of Leeds economies exercise - £35m savings target from 2010/11

  7. Leeds University Library • 3 years of efficiency savings • 1%, 5%, 10%, more in 2011/12? • Resource Allocation Model devolves decisions on materials spending to Schools • Approx 40% of entire materials budget pays for 8 packages

  8. Decisions for 2011 subscription year • Requirement to make savings of approx £300k from the materials budget – approx 12% cut in real terms • All subjects required to make savings • Reviewed all “top sliced” subscriptions • No option but to review package deals that were up for renewal and investigate those that weren’t • Reviewed ILL costs

  9. Analysing the big deals - cost per use • Headline figures show very good cost per use • 10p/use to around £2.50/use overall • Detail less good • 99p/use to £99/use • 4p/use to £590/use

  10. Cost per use – cost issues • What price do you use? • 2009, 2010, 2011? • Do the titles on the invoice match those in your usage spreadsheet? • What rate of exchange do you factor in? • When will the terms of a package deal be announced? • Analysis done in March - packages announced October/November

  11. Cost per use – use issues • What is use • Pdf, html, both? • Are the figures reliable, believable? • Marketing issues • Multiple sources for a title • Transfer titles

  12. Cost per use calculations • How do you match Price and use lists? • ISSN? • Manual correction

  13. Cost per use decisions • Decided on a cut-off point for cost per use • Compared the costs of subscribing to journals below that point to the cost of the package • 2 packages cancelled, others may follow

  14. Academic reaction • Cost per use a good starting point • Some issues around it being too crude – also give impact factors in the future? • As a factor in the calculations? • As additional evidence? • Some concerns that wider measures of value, e.g. impact, links to research income

  15. The answer • Is the big deal doomed? • Some probably are • Is the answer open access? • Changes to the publishing marketplace? • Do we need so many journals? • Without a big deal would (should) some have died?

  16. Journal use

  17. Risks • Still awaiting academic reaction when the cuts actually happen • 2760 titles disappear on 1st January • Will the prices of individual titles mysteriously rise? • Will the price of heavily used titles rise? • What would the world look like without big deals?

  18. The future • Librarians need to develop skills • Negotiation – are we customer or intermediary? • Data analysis • Publishers need to engage with us • More transparency around price rises • Why are their more issues per volume this year? • What value will your website improvements actually bring?

  19. “The capacity of UK universities to continue to pay such large year-on-year increases for access to scholarly journals is not infinite […] we need to reassess the costs of electronic access and find a new balance between the value added by publishers and the charges they make” Michael Arthur – VC at Leeds, Chair of Russell Group – RLUK press release Nov 2010

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