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A University of Leicester perspective on purchasing and renewal trends

Sheree DeweySerials ManagerUniversity LibraryUniversity of Leicester

To cover:-

• University college and library structure

• Renewals exercise 2014- aim to encourage review of subscriptions across all colleges

• Usage statistics, departmental attributions, big deals

• Summary

• The future?

University of Leicester college structure

• Four colleges: Arts, Humanities & Law; Medical & Biological Sciences & Psychology; Science & Engineering and Social Sciences

• Journals/databases are allocated on a departmental level within colleges but we also have “general” resources that are “top sliced”

• Renewal exercise conducted annually – departments are encourages to review title lists

2014 renewals exercise

• Savings needed to be made for 2015 from each college

• Journals titles paid for by the library are attributed to departments. They decide what they renew or cancel, new titles to order

• New orders need to be funded via cancellations savings

• BUT – library subscribes to “big deals” so unable to cancel some titles.

Renewal template

Department             Usage            

Title Publisher Cost 2014Estimated Cost 2015 Format

Cancellation Possible

Electronic Only Cost inc VAT 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Cost per use for 2013

           

               

Process

• Colleges/departments were sent lists of their titles with up to date financial information, usage, cost per use, e-only pricing etc.

• They were asked to make savings. Senior management team made suggestions to cancel low use titles and encouraged departments to convert to e-only if they hadn’t already done so

• Departments could still opt to keep titles if considered essential

Outcome

• Savings were made by converting to e-only where possible, particularly if cancelling DDP titles within a big package

• A list of titles requested to cancel in big deals compiled – future substitutions? Cancellation allowance?

• Low usage and less relevant titles identified by departments were cancelled

• Some additional savings available for new titles

To summarize

• We have renewal template to use in future years and build up usage year on year

• Departments have more information to base decisions on

• Encourages thorough review of titles

• BUT titles in big deals unable to be cancelled

• We have now almost all departments converting to e-only – no longer a savings option

The future?

• We will actively look out for packages and bundles that will utilize funds if we already have existing subscriptions

• Encourage departments to investigate other funding avenues – Departmental funds, central infrastructure fund bids?

• More top slicing? On a college level?

• Makes sense to build up existing collections such as JSTOR if funds become available?

Thank you for listening

Sheree Dewey - sad7@le.ac.uk