UKSG Conference 2015 - Manage, develop, collaborate: evidence-based decision making and continuing best practice in academic libraries James Kay and Paul Cavanagh University of Derby

www.derby.ac.ukwww.de rby.ac.uk

Manage, develop, collaborate:

Evidence-based decision making and

continuing best practice in academic

libraries

James Kay and Paul Cavanagh

www.derby.ac.uk

Meet your presenters

• Library Subscriptions & Document Delivery Librarian, December 2013.

• Previously Company Librarian at Simcyp Ltd (private pharma-tech enterprise company) for 6 ½ years.

• Met former Doctor Who Tom Baker and got his autograph...at Songs of Praise

James

• Library Resources Development & Delivery Manager, September 2013.

• Previously Senior Assistant Librarian De Montfort University, Leicester and Library Assistant at University of Nottingham.

• Appeared as a librarian in an episode of popular BBC daytime soap Doctors

Paul

• Subscriptions and E-Resources needed long term strategy to ensure sustainable service development.

• Process review and analysis of service provision resulted in changes to roles and responsibilities:

• E-Resources spend approx.

£750,000.00

• Coincided with reorganisation of University of Derby’s academic structure

Library

www.derby.ac.uk

Explicit challenges at the University of Derby –

Practicalities of provision

“(When working with e-resources) a vast bank of goodwill is required”

• Spend and commitment targets.

• Reviewing print and electronic

holdings in line with:

o Budget and spend

o Teaching, learning and research needs

• Agreeing Library provision in a

way that is:

o Transparent

o Measurable

o Comparable

Budgets

• Compatibility of resources with existing systems and technology:

o Reading lists – Talis Aspire, Talis Aspire Digitised Content (TADC)

o Discovery Service – EBSCO

o Catalogue – Prism

• Pricing models, collections and

packages

• Checking and storing licenses

Systems

• Meeting license requirements.

• Authentication standards

• Ensuring access for eligible

users

• Restricting access for ineligible

• users

• Managing on campus and off campus access

• Ensuring accuracy and visibility of holdings

Access

What challenges do you face?

www.derby.ac.uk

E-Resources’ response:

• Collection Development

Group

o Focusing on collections as a whole, reviewing and making effective decisions throughevidence.

• Library Systems Improvement Group

o Focusing on systems, accessibility, findability, usability.

• Reading Lists (Aspire/TADC)

Group

o Focusing on collaboration and reading lists provision

•Groups meet quarterly

Working Groups

• Reviewing roles and responsibilities (Subscriptions and Document Delivery Librarian, E-Resources Library Assistant, E-Resources Administrator)

• Changing work flows and building in support processes

• Identifying gaps in service provision

• Clarifying responsibilities with colleagues in IT services, Library and publishers

• Unifying systems – to a point

Service

• [email protected] mail box used for logging systems queries and faults and is now default email for subscriptions

• Renewals and Purchase Order notices

• Regular meetings with Finance team

• Establish cancellation periods for all resources

• Review current provision of usage statistics including peer and institutional benchmarking across time

Monitoring

www.derby.ac.uk

Harvesting and presenting usage data

• Details various criteria including Cost per Use, General Metrics and

ILL Comparison

• Note that this is at subscription level and not by subject or college

www.derby.ac.uk

In detail

• Comparison with previous year

taken from LMS

• Clear need to identify most

relevant metrics with Subject

Librarian colleagues

www.derby.ac.uk

“All usage is valid” - contextualising usage and finance

• Usage data statistics –standardisation through counter compliancy

• Who is using it and how? e.g. database, discovery service or individual journal?

• Practicalities of usage consolidation across different resources - a huge task, gathering and harvesting usage

• Establishing benchmarks

• Cost per use metric is often the primary indicator

What is usage?

Assessing systems and provision

• What has University agreed to provide? What can it not provide (e.g. to different student groups)? How can it check and store licenses?

Pricing models, collections and packages

• What has the University purchased? What content does it own? When is payment due?

Linking usage to cost

• Workbook is comprehensive but not immediately accessible -requires editing / abridging

• Leads to over simplification e.g. COUNTER / non-COUNTER is grouped as ‘usage’

• User education – different types of usage, cost per use / download, analysis

• Usage is not in isolation –one of many factors (e.g. Teaching, Learning and Research needs)

Monitoring

www.derby.ac.uk

E-Resources’ response:

• Removes General Metrics and ILLs

• Focuses on Cost per Use and Usage Criteria

www.derby.ac.uk

Implicit challenges at the University of Derby –

how we think and understand and what we communicate

Awareness

• Identifying resourcing needs and future proofing

• Focus on resource planning in early stages of course development

• Liaison with Subject Librarians

• Subject Librarian liaison with academics

• Understanding issues at senior management level

• Managing expectations –students, academics, publishers and content providers, librarians, institution

• Need to improve knowledge and understanding of issues surrounding resource renewals

• Communicating this information to colleagues

Communication

• Culture

• Structure

• Institutional priorities, e.g. student experience, research

• External factors e.g. funding, recruitment, student numbers.

• Legislation e.g. copyright restrictions

• Increasing cost of resources

Organisation and sector

www.derby.ac.uk

Going forward

• Usability testing

• Flexible spending timeline.

• Shared practice / community –across library, institutions, profession, FE / HE sector

• Engaging with publishers

• Positive impact in other areas of service – e.g. Enquiries, Subject Librarians

• Advocacy / promotion – of team, roles / responsibilities, new tools

• Future proofing – academic validations, course planning, systems development

Best practice

• Develop agreed assessment criteria for renewals based on:

o Teaching, learning and research needs

o Usage and comparison data

o Cost analysis

o Accessibility and authentication

• For a journal, criteria might be…good impact factor, academics publish regularly in it, student recommendation, selected for reading lists, only journal in the field etc

Analysis

• The ultimate aim, the dream of E-Resources!

• Holds all suppliers, renewals dates, costs and licensing information

• Provides detailed analytics, usage breakdown and allows benchmarking

• Links with student information, e.g. student numbers

• Links with all library systems, allowing easy authentication, updating of records

Matrix

www.derby.ac.uk

Thanks, questions and contacts

• James Kay

Library Subscriptions & Document Delivery Librarian

Learning Enhancement

T: 01332 592626

E: [email protected]

• Paul Cavanagh

Library Resources Development & Delivery Manager

Learning Enhancement

T: 01332 592459

E: [email protected]

• Tim Peacock

E-Resources Administrator

Learning Enhancement

T: 01332 591204

E: [email protected]

Twitter: @DerbyUniLibrary Web: http://www.derby.ac.uk/campus/library/