proving its worth... university of leeds bill hubbard 29 november 2007
TRANSCRIPT
Proving its worth . . .
University of Leeds
Bill Hubbard29 November 2007
Leading questions . . .
How much money will it save?• The point of this is to allow us to cancel journals,
right?
When will the repository break even?
Where will the money come from?• The money will have to come from library budgets . . .
How much money will it make?
No summary answer
Reasonable questions about cost, value-for-money, sources of money
Reasonable answers about open access, added-value and benefits
Our job to bring the two perspectives together
Let us try a traditional Cost-Benefit analysis . . .
Cost - Benefit analysis
Cost Benefit
Cost - Benefit analysis
CostSoftware
Server
FTE staffing
Distributed tech maintenance
Cultural change
New staff
Role redefinition
Service development
Permanent budget line
Benefitopen access
information management
citation rise
Costs are plain, benefits strategic
Repositories are a strategic investment
Are there any comparisons?
Comparisons
Any university information system• Website• Portal• Timetabling system• Finance system• Personnel database• Library catalogue• e-learning environment• email
Proving the worth of email . . .
Similarities - a system already in place • postal service, telephones - secretaries, services,
hierarchies
Benefits echoed• personalised communication - peer-to-peer direct
contact - desktop access
Cultural change echoes• roles redefined
Adoption profile• discipline specific - slow-build to tidal wave
and in passing . . .
email has not replaced postal service• although monolithic commercial concerns are strained• embedded monopoly position • agile operators move into vacuum
social mores insist on some postal communication but new generations will change
similar ideas of “official” communication
Proving the worth of email . . .
Can a similar calculation be made?
So, alternatively . . .
What do we loose if we don’t develop a repository service?
Who will be disadvantaged if we stop repository development?
How much will it cost if we don’t have a repository in the future?
What is the current situation costing us right now?
Strategic value
Show relevance to stakeholder needs
Show relevance to stakeholder aspirations
Show an account for stakeholder concerns
Identify any short-term returns
Describe long-term benefits, added value
Quantify costs without undercutting true investment
Create practical metrics to see if investment is on course• but measure the right thing!
Stakeholder needs and aspirations
Information management
Research management
Assessment and RAE
Institutional profile
Personal profiles
Marketing and publicity
Keeping up with the Joneses
Show how repository addresses these in local and national context
Account for stakeholder concerns
IPR - institutional and academic
Academics’ freedom to publish
Library roles under redefinition
Short-term returns
Funding agency requirements
Citation improvements• OA citations rise• but rise is relative between academics, departments,
institutions, so need to keep up with the Joneses
Long-term benefits, added value
Information management
Research management
Assessment and RAE
Institutional profile
Personal profiles
Marketing and publicity
Quantify costs
Staff
Equipment
Maintenance
Content acquisition
Support
Advocacy
Distributing the cost - embedding the process
Practical metrics
Define your own metrics for success• These will be locally sensitive• Collection policies• Collection targets - be practical• By discipline? - by research income? - by
prominence?
Private metrics for failure• for the warning bells to sound for you first!
Some figures for context
4000 articles per year
200 working days
20 articles a day
target for collection?
and preprints, conference papers, book chapters, reports, data-sets . . .
Proving its worth . . .
Not through a balance sheet
Not through coarse measures of size
Not as replacement for anything
As strategic investment that improves institution’s core work
As response to contemporary developments in HE and research
As beneficial for research management and research outputs
