Consortial E-book Acquisitions Librarian / Publisher / Vendor Perspectives Charleston Conference / November 10, 2011

Greg Raschke, North Carolina State University LibrariesCarol Hunter, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill LibrariesJonathan Bunkell, ebrarySarah Lippincott, Triangle Research Libraries Network

TRLN: Beyond PrintFunded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Although business models have changed, publishers and their intermediaries continue to try to evolve their market roles in ways that typically follow the rules for “two-party, one-issue” negotiations.  In an environment in which the negotiations are better framed using models for “many parties, many issues”, these more limited approaches have made the design of a flawed ecosystem even worse, shifting burdens onto valued intermediaries (libraries and booksellers, among others).

- Brian O’Leary

Collaboration history

TRLN United: One Collection, One Community

from the 1930’s to the present

If cooperation is to succeed, it must therefore emphasize

institutional advancement and enhanced service to users.

E-book Context

• Research advantages of e-books

• Purchase at point of need

But what about?

• Principle of cooperative collection development and resource sharing

• Complicated current rights environment

• Financial and workflow issues

Action

• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation support of consortium vision

• TRLN Beyond Print Summit August 2011

• Cohort of Librarians, Publishers, E-book Vendors

• Resource sharing, acquisition options and cost focus

From Anecdote to Data

TRLN analyzed two sets of approval plan orders from YBP: July 2007 – July 2010 (three years) and August 2010 – May 2011 (nine months)

•Analyzed using SAS, MySQL database, Excel, and manual verification

TRLN Collection Overlap

• TRLN libraries buy only one copy of a title more than 50% of the time and two or fewer copies more than 80% of the time.i

• Eight publishers account for 30% of the overlap between all three institutions.ii

i Includes print and electronic titlesii Titles purchased between August 2010 and May 2011

E-Book Overlap

• An estimated 71% of e-books are duplicated in print by at least one institutioni

• Of the estimated 29% of titles not duplicated in print, 84% are licensed as e-books by multiple institutions

i Based on analysis of a sample of 380 e-books acquired through YBP between July 2007 and May 2011

What Libraries Want

• Flexible acquisitions options, including title-by-title selection

• Integration of e-book purchasing into acquisitions workflow

• Support for resource sharing

• Transparency about availability of electronic materials

• Preservation assurances

• Multipliers that reflect actual usage and purchasing patterns

• Clearer and less limiting application of digital rights management (DRM)

LIBRARIANS, CONSORTIAL COLLEAGUES

VENDORS, AGGREGATORS,

PUBLISHERS

Avoid operational words like “ILL.” “Access,” “resource sharing,” and “temporary access” are more

descriptive

Need for industry standards for e-book usage and purchase triggers

Ownership through purchase does not necessarily include

“permanent access,” and does not allow the owner to

provide temporary access

Ownership through purchase should include permanent access, and should allow the owner to provide temporary access to consortia members and to external libraries

An institution’s prior investment in p should be considered by publishers in pricing e

Lease-to-own models should be offered

Consideration of SERU in lieu of license

Where possible, offer deep discounts for print with

purchase of e-book and vice versa

Transaction costs are low in short-term loan environment, & justify

full price purchase

Simplify licensing language and paperwork,

not necessarily SERU

Industry standards are not feasible in current market

Sharing and Networks

Cost Models

Acquisitions Options

Need multiple models: e.g. title-by-title selection, DDA, lease-to-own, packages

Integration with book vendors (workflow, ordering information, e and p duplication)

Simultaneous publication of p and e, preferably e first

Need transparent terminology

Explore pricing options for short-term loans, and use-based pricing

TRLN: Beyond Print | Commonalities and Gaps

Initial Frameworks: Business Models

• Two business model frameworks• Individual purchase (user-driven or selected) –

consortial access triggers additional fees to cap triggers consortial-wide ownership.

• Base price in two flavors: 1) for one copy in consortia with additional payment based on use thresholds to cap and 2) core collection at negotiated multiplier.

• Devilish details:• Reasonable cap/threshold for consortia.• Consortial analysis of purchasing activity and

realistic market expectations and overlap.

• Conspicuous absence of subscription discussion

Initial Frameworks: Resource Sharing

• Two resource sharing frameworks• Short-term loans that build to purchase.• ILL based on artificial scarcity.

• Devilish details:• What is fair short-term loan cost?• What is fair level of artificial scarcity?• Infrastructure to execute both.

Initial Frameworks: General Challenges

• Management side for vendors/publishers – uneven playing-field.

• Shifting costs to borrowers.

• University presses.

• Data sharing and development.

• Long-term preservation.

• Moving forward with pilots and experimentation.

Current Realities: Consortia PDA Models

All members can trigger Consortia would purchase

1.PDA ‘consideration repository’ is visible to ALL member libraries

2.Any patron from any member library can trigger a title

3.Once triggered all members’ patrons have access to the title

4.The consortia is invoiced appropriately

All members can trigger Individual member would purchase

1.Every member can see the PDA eligible holdings (consideration repository and owned titles) of other members that they don’t already own (effectively shared catalog)

2.These PDA eligible titles are made available to local patrons

3.Any patron can trigger one of these “non-owned” titles

4.When a patron triggers a title, that patron’s institution purchases the title for local use (NOT consortia use)

Moving Forward

• Pilots/discussions underway• OCUL• Beyond Print discussion• Significant consortia interest in sharing/access

of ebooks

• Data driven approach• Consideration of ILL costs• Data allows informed discussions with

publisher partners