In the past decade libraries have been transformed:

- More and more resources are being converted from a print or other physical formats to an electronic format.

- There has been an amazing increase in the variety and amount of content available or findable online.

- Library collections have become more interdependent as the universe of available content grows.

Moving from print to electronic

The acquisitions budget is used to pay for all library materials–books, journals, CDs, DVDs, microfilm and fiche, and electronic resources of all kinds. As the chart below shows, the proportion of our acquisitions budget we spend on electronic resources compared to print and other physical formats, has changed dramatically in the past 11 years.

The change is even more dramatic when we look at the portion of the acquisitions budget spent on serial subscriptions:

New content

The second change is that content that in the past libraries either did not provide, or was of limited accessibility and use, is increasingly in demand and becoming important in some disciplines. We now provide access to large online repositories of content including images, music, statistical data, and primary source materials such as diaries, journals, and letters. These resources combine a large amount of content with a variety of tools that can be used to analyze, manipulate and present the content.

Also, what have been called “hidden collections” that used to be discoverable and usable only locally, are becoming increasingly discoverable and usable online. For example, our Special Collections & Archives Dept. is creating online finding aids for their archival collections and digitizing some of them.

WesScholar, Wesleyan’s online institutional repository, includes digitized research and publications by Wesleyan faculty and students. We are also exploring the possibility of digitizing one of the World Music Archives collections of field recordings and making them available via WesScholar.

Increasing interdependence of library collections

Library collections are becoming increasingly interdependent as the universe of available content grows, and so do student and faculty expectations. In the past, each library was largely adequate in itself to meet the needs of their students and (less so) faculty. This is no longer a realistic aspiration of even the largest libraries.

Fortunately, interlibrary loan (ILL) is quicker and more efficient than ever before. In 1998, Wesleyan students and faculty requested 4,300 books and articles from other libraries; in 2009, this jumped to 12,700 requests. This is despite an increase in the number of periodicals the library provides access to from 3,425 in 1998, to 10,489 in 2009. (The number of books purchased annually has declined slightly over the same period.)

You might think that the ideal interlibrary loan partners would be those with large collections like Harvard or Yale. And from our point of view, they would be! But, libraries of our size do not have much in our collections that the big libraries don’t already have. So a unrestricted ILL service at a big library would benefit other libraries’ users far more than their own. As a result, they tend to have restrictive ILL lending policies.

So, our best interlibrary loan partners are libraries of similar size and educational mission. However, these libraries have selected a lot of the same materials over the years. Library consortia are starting to explore how to coordinate collection development to reduce duplication and provide a greater variety of resources.

For example, with our CTW partners, Trinity College and Connecticut College, we have undertaken a Mellon-funded project to explore ways to collaborate on collection development. So far we have compared our collections within the consortium to determine how much duplication we have between us, and how much these materials circulate. We have also implemented a process to identify and purchase a single consortial copy of some specialized and expensive books that we can share among us.

Focusing collections spending

In the past, librarians selected books and other materials to add to the collections based on their relevance to Wesleyan’s curriculum as well as student and faculty research interests. We were particularly focused on having material on hand that students could use for their assignments and research, since students had deadlines that did not permit them to wait a few weeks for interlibrary loan.

But this kind of ‘just in case’ selection practice meant necessarily that a significant percentage of the books we added were never used. Now with usage statistics available for most online resources, we can make informed decisions about whether or not to renew resources.

This year, the CTW Consortium is experimenting with consortial purchasing of electronic books on a ‘purchase on demand’ model. In January 2010 we will download several thousand ebook records into our catalogs, and our users can find and use the ebooks just as they would any other electronic resource we provide access to. But the consortium will only pay for an ebook once it is accessed twice by someone at one of our libraries. We are very interested to see what comes of this pilot project, and will be analyzing use and purchase data to determine its success.

Library mission remains the same

I’ve spoken mostly about online resources here, but the library is committed to being format neutral—acquiring or providing access to materials in the form most useful to our students and faculty. We realize that this is often, but not always, the online version. We continue to acquire print and other physical formats, as well as electronic ones.

What we are moving away from is paying for access in multiple formats at the same time. We subscribe to a few journals both in print and online, but the print subscriptions, with few exceptions, are likely to be targets for cancellation in the next few years.

So in conclusion, the library’s mission to provide information for the use of students and faculty is the same as it has always been. But our ability to provide such access has been enhanced by the shift to an online environment. Student and faculty expectations of the library have been correspondingly heightened, and librarians and staff are committed to meeting those expectations and needs as much as possible.

Why does it cost so much for the books, journals and other materials in the library’s collections? It is a long story:

The basics

The library’s acquisitions budget is used to purchase or provide access to books, journals, electronic resources, DVDs, CDs, and rare books and archival material—all the content that our students and faculty use for teaching, learning and research.

The acquisitions budget itself is split into two parts. The monograph, or one-time budget, is used to pay for books, DVDs, CDs and other materials that the library pays for once. The serials, or ongoing commitment budget, is used to pay for subscriptions—to journals, electronic resources, and anything that we pay an annual fee to access.

There are some electronic resources—journal backfiles and collections of primary source material—for which we pay a large, one-time fee out of the monograph budget, and a much smaller annual access fee from the serials budget.

As more and more resources of all kinds convert to electronic format, resources that used to be one-time purchases from the monograph budget are becoming electronic subscriptions paid for out of the serials budget. Ebooks are a perfect example; packages such as ebrary are subscriptions, not one-time purchases. But if we were purchasing the same titles in print, we would pay for them out of monographs. This is a trend we are keeping a close eye on as we plan next year’s budget. We are committed to ensuring that all subject areas receive adequate levels of support.

When it is necessary to reduce spending from the monograph budget, we do so by reducing the number of items we purchase. This can be an almost invisible cut if it is only for a year or two, although it does show itself in increased interlibrary loan use.

However, cutting the serials budget means cancelling subscriptions. Cancelling subscriptions, particularly electronic subscriptions, is difficult because it means cutting off access to articles, data or files that faculty and students have used in the past.

Why has the library’s acquisitions budget gone up so much in the past?

Until recently the library provided most resources in physical form—print books and journals, videos and sound recordings. The average price of monographs increased from 3-5% a year.

The average print journal price, on the other hand, increased from 8-10% a year. Serials jobbers, companies through which most academic libraries subscribe to print journals from a variety of publishers, offered discounts on many subscriptions. But this was not enough to significantly reduce the yearly price increase.

The annual 5% increase in the library acquisitions budget allowed the library to partially cover the annual price increase and to consider subscribing to a small number of new journals requested by faculty.

In addition, about every 5 years the library conducted a serials cancellation review, working with faculty to determine which journals were least used and might therefore be cancelled. The review allowed the library to adjust the monograph and serial budgets so that serials expenditures did not eat into money for monographs.

What is different now?

In a phrase, electronic resources. In the past decade or so the percentage of the acquisitions budget used to pay for electronic (as opposed to print) resources has increased each year. In FY08, 84% of the library’s serials spending was for electronic resources.

The cost of electronic resources is difficult to predict for many reasons.

- There is seldom a set subscription price; it must usually be negotiated. Whenever possible libraries band together in existing consortia or specially-created buying clubs to negotiate group discounts, which often require a multi-year subscription.

- Vendors determine an initial negotiating price based on one of a variety of factors. Some are not directly related to the library, for example the number of full-time students or the school’s Carnegie classification. If these change, it can have a significant effect on the library’s subscription costs.

- Vendors offer bundled packages of journals which allow the library to provide cost-effective access to many more titles than before. But unused journals cannot be cancelled to reduce the cost—it is an all-or-nothing bundle.

- New resources are being developed all the time, many providing data, images, recordings or other files that in the past the library did not acquire, or not extensively. As electronic versions become available by subscription, the library is often expected to provide access to these, to be paid for out of the acquisitions budget.

How has the recent economic downturn affected the library acquisitions budget?

The most obvious effect has been the reduction in the acquisitions budget this year. The budget was not increased the usual 5%, and instead was reduced by $360,000. Because of the time it takes to conduct a serials cancellation review, it was necessary to increase the serials budget by the expected 5% that subscription prices would increase.

So the $360,000 reduction and the 5% increase in the serials budget came from the monograph budget. The monograph budget was therefore reduced by approximately $508,000, or 47% from last year.

One positive outcome of the recession is that some vendors did not increase subscription prices, and more have reduced their usual increase. The result is that last year subscription prices increased only 3.8%, and the library is on track for a similar increase this year. As the economy improves in the next few years, the annual subscription increase is predicted to rise to pre-recession levels of from 6%-8%.

Cuts in the state budget are also having an impact. Through the iCONN program, the state of Connecticut has provided free access to many electronic resources. Budget cuts to iCONN have led to the cancellation of some of these subscriptions, and the library is now determining which subscriptions the library should pick up. Connecticut libraries are getting together to negotiate group discounts and Helen Aiello, Acquisitions/Electronic Resources Librarian, is involved in these discussions for Wesleyan.

What adjustments has the library made?

To adjust to this year’s reductions, the library reviewed spending and use patterns for monographs over the past five years by subject and format. Specific allocations were adjusted to reflect spending and use. Helen Aiello has done yeoman’s work with vendors to keep subscription price increases to a minimum.

The library is also working with our consortial partners at Connecticut College and Trinity College to explore how print and electronic resources can be more effectively shared among the three campuses. Over the past several years delivery times for interlibrary loan materials, particularly articles, have decreased dramatically, making ILL in some cases a viable alternative to acquiring books and journals.

Reductions are never easy and these will have an impact on the ease of accessibility of some materials. But the library is committed to exploring ways to continue to provide Wesleyan students and faculty with the resources they need.

The question: Is it possible for libraries to work together to reduce duplication of effort and get discounts on expensive subscriptions?

Collaboration is a time-honored practice in libraries. Books and journals are expensive; maintaining catalogs to locate library materials is both expensive and time-consuming. In response, libraries have found a variety of ways to work together to reduce duplication of work and resources.

Cataloging

Shared cataloging is an early and enduring example of library cooperation. Before the advent of online catalogs, the card catalog was developed so users could easily find the library resources they needed. Over a century ago, the Library of Congress (LC) began selling catalog cards to libraries, so each library did not duplicate the work of describing and classifying new books. This practice continued until computerized catalogs replaced card catalogs in the 1990s. Bibliographic records, which are the online equivalent of catalog cards, have been shared via several cooperative networks since the late 1960s.

Wesleyan participates in OCLC, an international cooperative network, receiving records from them and contributing to their database.

Interlibrary loan

Borrowing books and articles from other libraries is also a long-standing practice. In the late 19th century cooperative agreements were drawn up between libraries and interlibrary loan standards developed. Late in the 20^th century, cooperative cataloging networks such as OCLC developed online interlibrary loan networks to speed the processing of requests. More recently, these networks have developed the capability to send articles electronically (when this is permitted under copyright law), which reduces the delay between request and delivery to a day or two.

At Wesleyan it is possible to request materials via the Illiad system from libraries around the world.

Online systems

As online library catalogs replaced card catalogs, many library consortia decided to share a common online catalog, saving money on hardware, software, maintenance, and upgrades. An added advantage is that library users can do a single search and bring up relevant books from all the libraries in the consortium. As users became accustomed to requesting materials from libraries other than their own, it became less critical that each institution’s library support all the research, curricular and other needs of their users.

Wesleyan shares system costs with our CTW partners, Connecticut College and Trinity College. The CTW Consortium has also linked its catalogs so all three can be searched at once, and is exploring new systems that will improve access to electronic resources.

Consortial purchasing

For the past few decades, more and more print material such as indexes, journals, books and reference works have been replaced by electronic versions. The convenience and usability of electronic resources comes at the cost of—well, higher costs. Many local, regional and national consortia arrange with vendors to provide major resources at a reduced cost per library. Consortial purchasing also saves the time that each library would have spent negotiating licenses–if consortial staff are not available to do the negotiation, libraries often take turns doing it.

Wesleyan participates in several consortia and organizations—CTW, WALDO, Oberlin Group, NERL and others—to get the best price on electronic resources.

Collaborative collection development

Library consortia have shared print collections for many years. But due to the time and cost of delivering physical materials, consortial borrowing supplemented–but did not replace–local library collections. Electronic resources can be easily shared, so libraries, vendors and publishers are developing systems that permit this sharing while protecting the rights of authors, creators and distributors. It is increasingly the case that at a cost less than purchasing a resource individually at each library, all libraries in a consortium can provide simultaneous electronic access. As a result, libraries are beginning to think in terms of a single consortial collection to fulfill curricular and research needs on their campuses, instead of individual collections that duplicate each other.

The CTW Consortium received a Mellon grant two years ago to explore ways to collaborate on collection development to reduce unnecessary duplication of resources and share collections efficiently. The project is currently conducting two pilots–one to identify and purchase supplementary print books that can be shared within the consortium, and the other to consortially purchase electronic books that can be accessed at all three schools.

All together now …

Libraries are very different now from what they were 100 years ago. But the spirit of cooperation and service is a constant in libraries, and in that spirit we will continue to work together to find ways to make library services more efficient and effective.

Tags: Collaboration

The question:  What are you doing to provide ebooks to library users?

Electronic books have been around for a long time. But a tipping point has been reached–the promise of electronic books is finally being realized.

What kinds of ebooks do we have now?

For many years now the library has provided access to electronic books in one form or another. We currently have links to over 600,000 ebooks in our catalog. [If you are a member of the Wesleyan community and are reading this off-campus, access these resources via the library's web site.--P.T.] Many reference works that the library used to have in print, for example Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, the CRC Handbook, and the Oxford English Dictionary, we now provide online. The library also has online collections of books that are rare or fragile in print, including Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Early American Imprints. Then there are collections of books specific to a discipline or group of disciplines, including Oxford Scholarship Online: Philosophy and the Patrologia Latina.

In addition to specialized collections, the library also provides access to general collections of scholarly books. Our NetLibrary collection includes several hundred titles, but because their interface is a little clunky the library has not added new NetLibrary titles for some time. Through ebrary, Wesleyan now has access to over 43,000 electronic books.

What’s new?

Wesleyan University Library is working with our CTW Consortium partners, Connecticut College and Trinity College, to test a new model of ebook purchasing. Later this fall, the library will load into our catalog the records for a large collection of scholarly books. An ebook will be automatically purchased by the CTW Consortium once it is accessed twice by any patron at one of the three libraries. The cost of the book is less than if each library purchased a copy separately, and it will be accessible to all three schools. CTW will pay only for those ebooks that are actually used by our patrons.

How are ebooks used?

The ebooks the library now has are used much in the same way journal articles are used—researchers find and extract data, passages or sections, but rarely read the entire work. For research purposes, it is convenient to use ebooks on a computer, where you can move from the book, to an index or search engine, and to Excel, Word or another document. Ebooks are also convenient in that most can be accessed by a Wesleyan student or faculty member from off-campus, and they can often be used by more than one person at a time.

It is less convenient to use a computer to read a book straight through—a novel or narrative history, for example. It is hard to get comfortable in front of a desktop or with a laptop on your knees. But there are ebooks that can be downloaded onto an iPhone or Blackberry for easy portability. For even more comfortable reading, specialized readers such as Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Portable Reader are designed to replicate and enhance the experience of reading a printed book.

Why the printing and copying limitations?

Because it is so easy to print online, and to move text and other objects from one electronic document to another, it should be easy to do the same with ebooks. Unfortunately because of copyright law and licensing restrictions, strict printing and copying limits are placed on ebooks. This can be annoying if you want to print out a few chapters or copy and paste a passage (with attribution) into your research paper. Libraries, publishers and ebook vendors are continuing to work together to make ebooks easy to read and use while at the same time protecting the rights of authors and publshers.

Tags: Ebooks