2014 Charleston Library Conference

With libraries under increasing financial pressure to demonstrate value in their collections, the University of California (UC) explores adopting a value methodology that had origins in evaluating journal packages, taking into account utility, quality, and cost-effectiveness. Reviewing a publisher’s eBook package by imprint year and determining how best to select content based on users’ needs becomes more complicated when a library wants strong licensing terms and to be fiscally responsible. As a publisher, T&F understands these challenges as well as the need to offer a variety of creative purchasing options to meet libraries’ varying needs. To this end, the UC engaged with Taylor & Francis Group to use evidence-based acquisitions as one method of acquiring CRCnetBASE eBook content. CRCnetBASE is T&F’s STEM content eBook platform, containing over 12,000+ titles in over 350 subject areas and 36 distinct collections.

We will discuss the challenges and opportunities provided by such a model, as well as lessons learned. For monographs, new applications are needed and evidence-based purchasing provides options supporting why and how UC users integrate books into their academic work. By having such alternatives, observing what is being read, libraries can determine what content to purchase and retain. This evidence-based method reaffirms how libraries have evolved from acquiring content based on perceptions and anticipated needs to more efficiently analyzing resource investments defined by use and publishers can more actively engage in the process by providing more effective data points. From a publisher’s perspective, this experience revealed the need for refined internal processes, efficient and timely addition of metadata, and fast and accurate usage statistics. It also highlighted the necessity of giving sufficient time for newly-published titles to be discovered. And finally, it showed the promise of offering greater control to libraries with a measure of predictability for publishers with a pre-agreed spend amount.