A weighted decision matrix for outsourcing library services

A study, funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, was undertaken in 2000-2001 to give an up-to-date view of the current experience of outsourcing and externalization in libraries, museums and archives. Case studies of purchasers recognized as pioneers in the field, and of providers, were undertaken. As a result, this weighted decision matrix was developed as a tool for judging the suitability of library services for outsourcing. Illustrations of potential uses are given

Price and competition: consortial strategies for procuring information

The issues discussed here (the advantages of consortium purchase; national or regional negotiation; separation of electronic from hard-copy procurement; creating competition between monopoly suppliers) are treated more fully in my report on research undertaken for Resource (The [UK] Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries) in March 2002, and in an earlier paper

Positioning librarians as essential to the new virtual learning environments

This paper discusses the explosion in the use of electronic resources by students and the development of e-books. The existing high usage will intensify as virtual learning environments (VLEs) become the primary means of interaction between students and universities. A brief outline of university library procurement in the UK is given, followed by an analysis of a recent ground-breaking tender for e-books for higher education libraries in the UK. The continuing development of a bespoke subject collection of e-books for nursing students is explored in some detail, as is the demand for non-traditional resources for the VLE. The paper closes by discussing the information architecture necessary to streamline and unify access to resources in the hybrid library, and to lay the foundation for an architecture appropriate to the electronic library

The Virtual Learning Environment as a transformational technology for academic libraries

This paper discusses the explosion in the use of electronic resources by students and the development of e-books. The existing high usage of e-resources will be intensified as virtual learning environments (VLEs) become the primary means of interaction between students and universities. The development of a bespoke subject collection of e-books for nursing students is explored in some detail, as is the demand for non-traditional resources for the VLE. The paper closes by discussing the opportunities for integrating resources into and exploiting VLEs

Library purchasing consortia: their activity and effect on the marketplace

This chapter is based on a survey undertaken for a BLRIC/LIC-funded research project (RIC/G/403). It describes the models of operation of purchasing consortia in three library sectors (health, higher education and public libraries) and discusses present and future savings deriving from consortial activity. The effects of consortia on suppliers are discussed and future activity predicted. The views expressed are those of the authors, not of BLRIC or LIC

Library purchasing consortia: the UK periodicals supply market

This article is based on surveys undertaken for a British Library Research and Innovation Centre/Library and Information Commission-funded research project. It describes the models of operation of purchasing consortia in two library sectors (health and higher education) and their expenditure patterns. Present and future savings deriving from consortial activity and the effects of consortia on periodicals suppliers are discussed. The article closes by predicting future activity

The information value chain: emerging models for procuring electronic publications

The first part of this paper examines the information supply chain and some of its concepts; particular attention is paid to features differentiating electronic from printed information. The second part discusses the procurement process and, in the light of the analysis made in the first part, evaluates the various models for procuring electronic information

Library purchasing consortia in the UK: activity, benefits and good practice.

Following a brief introduction in Section 1, Section 2 sets out the operational context of library purchasing consortia. A range of key factors have shaped recent developments in the four LIS sectors under consideration (FE, HE, health and public libraries); some have exerted a common influence over all (e.g. information technology, European Commission purchasing directives, new central government, decline in bookfunds); some are sector-specific (e.g. purchasing arrangements, regional administrative frameworks, collaborative partnerships). The structure and markets of the book and periodical publishing industry in the UK are reviewed, with attention paid to historical as well as more recent practice that has had an impact on library supply. Although each component of the LIS purchasing consortia jigsaw displays individual characteristics that have evolved as a response to its own environment, the thread that links them together is constant change. Section 3 presents the results of a survey of identified library purchasing consortia in the four library sectors. It treats common themes of relevance to all consortia arising from information gathered by seminar input, questionnaire and interview. These include models of consortium operation, membership and governance, ‘typical’ composition of consortia in each sector, and links to analogous practice in other library sectors. Common features of the tendering and contract management process are elicited and attention paid to any contribution of procurement professionals. Finally, levels of consortium expenditure and cost savings are estimated from the published statistical record, which readily demonstrate in financial terms the efficiency of the consortial purchase model for all types of library in the United Kingdom. Section 4 presents the results of a survey of suppliers to libraries in the United Kingdom of books and periodicals, the two sectors most commonly represented in current contracts of library purchasing consortia. It sets out in some detail the operating context governing the highly segmented activities of library booksellers, as well as that pertaining to periodicals suppliers (also known as subscription agents). Detailed responses to questions on the effects of library purchasing consortia on suppliers of both materials have been gathered by questionnaire survey and selected follow-up interviews. Results are presented and analysed according to supply sector with attention given to the tendering process, current contracts under way, cross-sectoral clientele, and advantages and inhibitors of consortia supply. Further responses are reported on issues of how consortia have affected suppliers’ volume of trade, operating margins and market stability as perceived in their own business, the library supply sector and the publishing industry. Finally, overall conclusions are drawn and projections made as to future implications for both types of library suppliers. Section 5 synthesises findings, details enabling and inhibiting factors for consortia formation and models of best practice amongst consortia. The scope for cross-sectoral collaboration is discussed and found to be limited at present. Pointers are given for future activity

Library purchasing consortia: achieving value for money and shaping the emerging electronic marketplace

Drawing on a current study, funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre, the context of higher education libraries is discussed, including funding and costs and recent major official reports on education and libraries. Future trends and imperatives are outlined. Models of library purchasing consortia are presented. The operation of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium’s Libraries Project Group is examined in detail. The lessons and benefits of consortium membership are discussed. The future influence of purchasing consortia, particularly on the regional library and on electronic publishing are examined

Goodbye to all that: Disintermediation, disruption and the diminishing library

The librarian’s role in collection development is being eroded through disintermediation. A number of factors are contributing to this: • With the Big Deals for e-journals power has shifted considerably in the publishers’ favour, and libraries’ freedom to make collection development decisions has been curtailed. If the trend towards national deals and block payments, seen for instance in the Scottish Higher Education Digital Library (SHEDL), continues, this freedom will be eroded even more; acquisitions decisions are increasingly made at the level of publisher rather than title. • A notable response to the power of the publishers’ monopoly is the open access movement, which aims to make scholarly literature freely available to all. One route is through open access publishing, where typically the author, or their institution or research funder, pays the cost of peer review and publishing. The other route is the deposit of pre- or post-prints of traditionally published materials in the author’s institutional repository or in a subject repository such as Arxiv. The librarian again is making no decisions on availability in collections. • E-book technology has enabled the introduction of so-called ‘patron selection’ or ‘patron driven acquisition’ (PDA). Suppliers of e-books are now offering libraries the opportunity to make available a fund to be spent on new e-book titles as they become popular with library users. PDA is becoming increasingly popular: a recent survey of 250 libraries in the USA showed that ‘32 have PDA programs deployed; 42 planned to have a program deployed within the next year; and an additional 90 plan to deploy a program within the next three years’ (http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/?p=932). Librarians are able to impose some restrictions – for instance specifying subjects or ranges of titles; otherwise selection is taken out of the hands of librarians and entrusted to users . Initial statistics show the usage of many titles selected by users to be as high as the usage of titles selected by librarians or academics. • Google’s massive digitisation programme, although currently under legal threat, is another example. In the disintermediated world the librarian’s role is changing. It will in my view become increasingly focused not on externally produced resources, but on creating, developing and maintaining repositories of materials, whether learning objects, research data-sets or research outputs, produced in house in their own institution. Traditionally librarians have sought through the art of collection development to obtain the outputs of the world’s scholars and make them available to the scholars of their own institution – an impossible task. However our role is now being reversed: it will be to collect the outputs of our own institution’s scholars and make them freely available to the world. This task is capable of achievement and attains the aim of universal availability of scholarship to scholars. However it is not collection development as it has been practised down the years in the print world; that art, it can be argued, will no longer be needed in the era of disintermediation