Creating a Consortium to Share Primary Materials

Joseph J. Esposito

Charleston

November 2010

The Basic Idea

Create a consortium of academic institutions to digitize and share important collections with other

members; have strong governance policies and stiff requirements for

membership.

Topics

• The primary focus here is on the business model

• Problems for digitization projects• The economics of a consortium (built on the

“circle of gifts” model)• Policy issues and governance• Benefits and limitations

And a Request . . .

• Please help me come up with a name for this new service

A New Consortium Model

• Begin with 5 founding institutions• Each undertakes to digitize and curate a

collection of some importance and scope• Each commits to ongoing maintenance• Each invests money for a consortium

management team• Each gets access to the others’ collections

Benefits

• Eliminates free-rider problem• Enormous leverage in membership (one

investment yields a return of a great many collections); the model scales

• Costs remain steady; value continues to grow• Unlikely to be de-funded (value/leverage is

too great)

Hypothetical Problem and Goals

• A library has a special collection of private papers

• The aim is to digitize the collection and make it available to the institution’s community

• Preference for making the collection available more broadly

Some Problems to Be Solved

• Intellectual Property: What rights does the library control?

• Do the papers have the proper scope for a collection (e.g., sufficiently comprehensive)?

• Digitization project management• Protecting original materials• Hosting the service• Curation of the collection

Problems #2

• How to plan for ongoing maintenance?• How to bring the collection to users’

attention?• And, of course, how are we going to pay for all

this?• Let’s not leave out the inherent problem of

planning anything because of the unanticipated

$$$ Focus on Financing $$$

1. Research and planning costs (one-time)

2. Start-up costs (one-time)

3. Maintenance costs (ongoing)

4. Enhancements costs (requires reserve)

Research and Planning

• Feasibility study• Interview key members of community• Develop typology for project and environment

(not of the market because this is not a market-based initiative)

• Deliverable: Paper defining goals and issues• May be best to stop short of business plan

Start-up Costs

• Digitization and preservation• Management team• Contract with hosting firm • Editorial/curation costs• Expenses/fees for advisory boards• And more

Maintenance Costs

• Ongoing hosting fees• Ongoing curation fees• Marketing (demand creation, both to users

and to prospective members)• Management fee (for consortium

management)

Enhancement Costs

• New features• New technologies• Business development (e.g., expand beyond

U.S.)• Retrospective redigitization• Special editorial projects

Issues with Financing

• Scope of costs means that some projects never get off the ground

• The proven—yes, proven—business models of some open access services do not apply here

• Sometimes thinking big gets in the way of starting small

Tasks for Management

• Create business plan• Seek grants for start-up costs• Set up advisory committees• Develop policies for membership, fees, levels

of curation, audits• Develop progressive requirements and fees

Objections

• How about unaffiliated scholars?• What about institutions that need access for

teaching, but cannot curate collections?• Why restrict access at all? Why not open

access?

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be

overcome.

Samuel Johnson

Why Primary Documents?

• Potentially fewer IP issues• Public domain books now being addressed by

multiple parties• Not likely to be addressed comprehensively by

commercial entities• Provides a platform for other content types• You have to start somewhere

Summary of Business Principles

• Seek leverage in working in a consortium• Mandate stiff requirements for membership• Audit members’ performance• Focus on value created, not cost (the issue of

scale)• Eliminate free riders• Appoint STRONG management team

So What Should We Call This Darn Thing?