Against the Grain

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Progress and Pitfalls in Consortial eBook Acquisitions: The Orbis Cascade Alliance Experience

Abigail Bibee

Andrea Langhurst Eickholt

Jesse Holden

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This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Libraries must embrace We have moved from the How to Use Data and Assessment ... a world where assessment labor-intensive analog days to from page 16 and applied technologies a digital environment where will play an increasing information resources in all their print collections over time. These efforts role in shaping collection formats (print and digital) will not be fully successful without robust workflows and processes. can be provided to users at assessment efforts informing and influencing Vendors have a role to point of need, as well as made collection development decisions. play in providing tools available for computational Applications and tools to analyze and vi- and the necessary data analysis. Libraries will con- sualize data are key to successful assessments. to inform local and net- tinue to evolve in how they These tools must scale to large datasets, be worked operations. Data manage collections, working regularly refreshed with new and corrected privacy (institutional and in collaborative networks and data, have security and access controls (where personal) and algorithm in mutually beneficial arrange- necessary), employ transparent or understand- transparency are critical ments with publishers and ven- able algorithms, and be queryable to address issues that libraries need dors. Libraries must embrace evolving and novel questions. For example, at to address with the vendor a culture of assessment, locally Yale we migrated from static monthly collec- community. There must and in close partnerships, to tion fund reports to weekly refreshed reports also be an understanding guide a wide range of deci- viewable through Tableau. Subject librarians that libraries will increas- sions affecting all aspects of who manage allocated collection funds have ingly acquire and manage the collections lifecycle. The praised the more intuitive interface and up- collection materials in a ultimate goal is to maintain to-date financial data in helping them more network, say more like the way you think of and improve service for our user communities, effectively monitor their allocations and be branch library systems today. Ideally, libraries including the global scholarly community. timelier with acquisition decisions. and vendors can work together to create prod- Libraries are robust, versatile organizations, At the network level, the IPLC is exploring ucts and pricing models viable at network scale, and we will continue to be so into a future applications and tools needed for collection and available open access where possible. increasingly enabled by data and technology management and development. A working Libraries can realize workflow and economic where the services provided through library group is engaged in this research with the goal efficiencies in how information resources are collections are developed, described, managed, of developing a suite of collection lifecycle acquired, described, discovered, and preserved, analyzed, preserved, and open. tools to inform collaborative collection efforts. while also working with vendors in a healthy A hoped-for outcome would be a vendor-neu- scholarly communications marketplace where tral selection tool, coupled with robust assess- innovation continues, and the issues of data Author’s Note: I want to thank Galadriel ment data, to facilitate separate, coordinated, privacy, intellectual property, and algorithm Chilton for generously sharing the collections or joint collection building. transparency are addressed. lifecycle graphic for use in this article. — DD

Progress and Pitfalls in Consortial eBook Acquisitions: The Orbis Cascade Alliance Experience by Abigail Bibee (Technical Services Librarian, University of Arizona) and Andrea Langhurst Eickholt (Collection Management Librarian, Eastern University) and Jesse Holden (Program Manager, Shared Content & Technical Services, Orbis Cascade Alliance)

he Orbis Cascade Alliance (“the Alli- is comprised of around ten members from sons about implementing and simultaneously ance”) is a consortium of 38 academic Alliance institutions and the SCTS Program maintaining various eBook plans at a consortial libraries in the Pacific Northwest, com- Manager. level, which we outline below. T 1 prised of a diversity of institutions serving over Access and selection of eBooks is managed Acquisitions Models 275,000 students. In 2011, the Alliance began through the shared Alma ILS, which includes a program to develop a shared eBook collec- a consortial “network zone” (NZ), and Primo Several models of eBook acquisition are tion. Initially built around a demand-driven discovery service. Bibliographic records for available to consortia, but not all models are acquisitions (DDA) plan run through YBP and discovery are centrally loaded into the Alma suited to every situation. Examples include EBL,2 the program has evolved in recent years NZ, and therefore facilitate discovery and DDA, evidence-based acquisition (EBA), to capitalize on new opportunities and respond access for all Alliance member institutions package subscription, front and back-list pur- to challenges that have emerged in managing via Primo. For each title accessible through chases, and collection purchases. Selecting such a large program. the eBook program, a public note displays in a plan or approach to meet participant needs The $1M eBook program is centrally Primo, distinguishing between “discovery” is essential. As a result, a periodic review funded via consortial dues and is intended to (not yet purchased) and purchased titles. to ensure plans continue to meet needs over benefit all members. Like funding, manage- Managing a consortial process of selection, time is an important aspect of developing and ment of the program is centralized through acquisition, and access to a shared collection maintaining a consortial collection. the Alliance “team” structure. The Ebook requires the integration of several moving Pitfall: It can be easy to initially under- Standing Group (ESG) operates under the parts. New complications for the ESG devel- estimate how complex a seemingly simple auspices of the Shared Content & Technical oped as the eBook program expanded and plans plan may become when implemented in a Services (SCTS) Team. Drawing on varied diversified, especially in the 2017-18 year. consortial space. expertise from across the consortium, the ESG Along the way, the group learned many les- continued on page 18

Against the Grain / April 2019 17 of “copies” the consortium needs to buy for Staffing Progress and Pitfalls in Consortial ... shared access). Because of the centralized management from page 17 Pitfall: Lack of clarity when commu- of the program, turnover in both central nicating expectations of value and having a consortium staff and group members created Takeaway: Carefully evaluate consortial proposed multiplier come in too high. confusing gaps in knowledge or ambiguity needs and project how a given model will Takeaway: To make the proposal process around program parameters. In the misunder- function within the consortial context. It is standings that inevitably arose, it was difficult important to be as specific and detailed as pos- as successful as possible, clearly identify and agree on the acceptable threshold for consid- to determine at some points why a given plan sible when requesting proposals from vendors was not meeting expectations. and publishers. Evaluation of potential plans eration before approaching content providers. should consider member needs and account Multipliers in the single digits seem to be the Pitfall: Assuming that institutional mem- for the capacity required for ongoing central norm. When a multiplier in the double-digits ory would provide ongoing context and fill in management. (e.g., 10x) is proposed by a content provider, any gaps. then it is difficult to seriously consider the offer. Takeaway: Document everything! While Bibliographic Records Management Number of Plans documenting the program seems obvious, Ease and effectiveness of centrally managing When managing a program on behalf of many assumptions or details may be easily bibliographic records have always been a key- several dozen institutions, it does not take more overlooked during planning and implementa- stone of the Alliance eBook program. Alma than a couple of concurrent plans to multiply tion. It is difficult to determine what may be import profiles for each plan were created to the complexities of program management the most important bit of information in the retrieve and load new records from selected considerably. Within the context of an ongoing end, so record all elements of the program and collections in OCLC WorldShare Collection eBook acquisitions program that is constantly resolve ambiguities as the program evolves. Manager. The Alliance has found this workflow adapting to changes in technology, publishing, Take nothing for granted! to increase efficiency as it automates record de- and user expectations, it is important to keep livery and reduces manual processing of records. Statistics the plans manageable at the consortial scale. Pitfall: Assuming that high quality meta- It is also worth noting that if plans are dropped An essential part of the eBooks program is data would be available within an acceptable and new plans are implemented to take their usage statistics, both for each member insti- time frame from any participating publisher place, the old plans may still result in continu- tution and for the Alliance overall. Many of via services like OCLC WorldShare Collection ing central management (including statistics the plans incorporated usage into the selection Manager. gathering, link maintenance, de-duplication model. But the Alliance relies on the usage Takeaway: It is important to clearly specify of new plans, etc.) data to help determine the contribution of each member to the eBook fund. the metadata standards and workflows upfront. Pitfall: Over the course of a continuous Do not take it for granted that publishers will program, old plans, failed pilots, and outdat- Pitfall: Not every content provider’s plat- have the same knowledge of and commitment ed acquisition models will create a growing form includes a consortial dashboard. The to high-quality metadata as book vendors. snowball of maintenance issues that require ability to provide not only scheduled statistics Confirm that bibliographic record delivery ongoing attention. but a variety of data display options, such as from a given publisher can be accommodated customizable time periods or subject group- Takeaway: Any plans should be carefully ings, may be a requirement for the consortium. by consortial workflows. considered. It is not just a plan’s ability to meet Budgeting immediate needs that determine its suitability, Takeaway: A key consideration in any plan is determining how usage will influence Cost predictability is essential in any plan. but a projection of long-term maintenance re- quirements should also be part of the calculus. selection to benefit a consortium’s users. Re- When multiple institutions of varying size and viewing a sample of a given content provider’s individual missions are participating in the Platform Migrations multi-institution usage reports should inform same program, it is helpful to keep budgeting Though an inevitable and necessary aspect the decision. Clearly stating the consortium’s as simple as possible. of a technologically-mediated content program, requirements to content providers in advance Pitfall: Budgeting for real-time de- the impact of timing and planning of migra- of implementation will help ensure usage data mand-driven purchasing across many institu- tions can be critical. For example, shortly will be supplied in a timely fashion. Consider tions is tricky and requires constant attention, into a new plan year, an unexpected publisher drafting model language for license agreements especially as content, pricing, and access platform migration undermined a large part of specifically about usage data that can be avail- models change over time. When high access the program. This migration resulted in access able when proposals are requested. and short-term loan costs became unsustainable problems for members across the consortium, For example: Specifying that usage data under the DDA program, the Alliance began as well as the provider’s ability to respond to will be made available at both the aggregate to move toward other models (e.g., EBA) for issues in a timely manner. 3 (i.e., consortial) and individual institution consortial purchasing. Pitfall: Assuming that the platform would levels; Requiring that usage of titles purchased Takeaway: Demand-driven pricing may be stable and that any change would have a outside the plan will be excluded; Detailing not be effectively scalable within a consortial long lead time. timelines for usage data reporting including environment. Consortial acquisitions should Takeaway: Before starting a plan, make sure the time it will take the provider to compile be implemented to streamline workflows. It is to discuss each content provider’s plan for their consortium-wide usage data and how much not enough to save money for a plan to be suc- technology maintenance or upgrades. Be clear time the consortium will be allowed to review cessful; the plan needs to reduce work, as well. that major disruptions (such as a platform migra- the data prior to selecting titles for purchase. Multipliers tion) will require a long lead time to mitigate Scope of Content Along with the central- impact on users. Ex- Because of the diversity of institutions ized management of the pectations around clear represented in Alliance membership, content program, the benefit of le- communication and must be scoped very carefully. Parameters veraging the buying power reasonable timelines should be simple enough to be shared broadly of many institutions into a should be discussed within the organization (e.g., with subject low “multiplier” is a prin- and then documented. liaisons who are not members of the ESG), so cipal value of a consortial For example, spell out that individual institutions can coordinate local eBook plan. A multiplier specific expectations collection development. is how many times the list for URL redirects to Pitfall: Believing that certain categories price is multiplied by for maintain stable access (e.g., “textbooks,” encyclopedias, etc.) may be each title (i.e., the number through the transition. continued on page 21 18 Against the Grain / April 2019 importance of a team committed to investigating A Case Study: Integration ... Progress and Pitfalls in Consortial ... issues and identifying solutions to mitigate the from page 20 from page 18 impact on the larger consortium of members and users.4 Careful planning, detailed documentation, today, as they look to build their larger excluded without category parameters or specific and constant communication are critical to avoid collections. titles lists of what is being excluded. problems with acquisitions at a consortial scale. After two years of loading hold- Takeaway: When dealing with content pro- ings and integrating eBook collec- viders, a clear scope of content included in the tions into GOBI workflows, the plan is important to define before implementation. Endnotes library has seen benefits of this Consider documenting specific title lists of either 1. www.orbiscascade.org/member. integration. The selectors appreciate included or excluded titles; clearly defined publi- 2. McElroy, E. and S. Hinken. (2014). “Pio- that they can now see what has been cation ranges (especially if an acquisition program neering Partnerships: Building a Demand-Driven purchased or is part of an eBook doesn’t run concurrent with a calendar year); and a Consortium eBook Collection.” Against the collection, the questions to Acqui- thorough understanding of how a publisher eBook Grain. 23(3). sitions have greatly decreased, and platform does or does not mirror print publication 3. Robbeloth, H., Ragucci, M., and DeShazo, selectors are spending down their lists and schedules. K. (2017). “Evidence-Based Acquisition: A budgets without fear of unnecessary Real Life Account of Managing the Program Conclusion Within the Orbis Cascade Alliance.” The Serials duplication. Having eBook collec- Librarian. 73:3-4, 240-247. tions integrated into the monograph A consortial eBook acquisition program is an exciting way to build a shared collection and 4. The authors wish to acknowledge the collab- vendor workflow also gives the orative efforts of the 2017-18 ESG members in library a better way to view their En- rethink collection development. The ability to responding to issues and identifying solutions glish-language collection more holis- achieve further efficiency through a shared ILS to keep the Alliance eBook program moving tically regardless of format, making and NZ really enables a consortium to push the forward during a very complex period: Abigail it easier to identify and address gaps boundaries of traditional monograph acquisitions. Bibee (), Faye Christenberry in the collection. The library is now Through discounted purchasing, consolidated data (), Andrea Eickholt working towards a new set of profiles analysis, and streamlining record loading, the con- (ESG Chair, Eastern Washington University), sortium achieves economies of scale at many points Jesse Holden (Orbis Cascade Alliance), Tom that will address these disparities and Larsen (Portland State University), Lorena better serve the users in the future. throughout the selection-to-acquisition process. O’English (Washington State University), Alex- By consolidating and centralizing, Along with the possible efficiencies comes the ander Rolfe (), Michelle they believe they have improved the potential for added complexity. The pitfalls and Weston (Western Washington University). efficiencies for all. lessons learned by the Alliance ESG highlight the

Doing More with Less, Revisited: Batch Processing, Outsourcing and Data Driven Curation, Five Years Later by Jeffrey Daniels (Associate Dean of Curation, Publishing, and Preservation Services, Grand Valley State University) and Patrick Roth (Head of Systems and Discovery, Grand Valley State University Libraries)

oing more with less — this is a common to determine how to allocate a finite amount must continue to balance the resources at theme we hear in libraries. In 2013, we of staff time and operating budget. For us hand to provide the best possible service to Dpresented at the Charleston Confer- this theory of “Good Enough” is the attempt our patrons. The examples that follow are ence on this topic, followed up by an article in to balance the investment of people and bud- updated, and show how GVSU Libraries Against the Grain.1 From 2010 to 2013 Grand get versus the impact any particular service streamline or outsourcing work. Valley State University (GVSU) Libraries or procedure may have for our users; the spent time exploring batch processing and larger the impact, the more likely we are to Pre-processing Services outsourcing technical services and collection dedicate time and money. It’s common for In our presentation and article from five curation. We outlined projects utilizing these service-minded professionals to want to do years ago, we provided examples of why techniques, talked about our approach and their very best at every task for our patrons. pre-processing services from vendors can be a reflected on early results of these projects. This drive is one of the key factors in a great way for libraries to save time and get materials When recently approached to explore the top- library and a positive work culture. But with to users in a much shorter time frame. These ics of outsourcing, curation automation, and widespread dips in enrollment translating into services include application of call numbers, efficiencies in technical services it seemed like budget constraints, it is simply impossible to barcodes, RFID tags, and property stamps on a wonderful opportunity to revisit some of the be the very best in every service we offer. materials. Having the vendor do this processing examples five years later. Pre-processing ser- Libraries must continue to ask ourselves, work allowed us to keep up with the incoming vices, data-driven curation our faculty, and staff what materials, while only having one cataloger and of the collection, vendor can we get done with the ten to twenty hours of student help per week. provided MARC records, resources we have? What We saw our processing time per book drop and “internal outsourc- is the alternative for this from eight to ten minutes per item to two to ing” were examples we felt project if we cannot be three minutes per item on average. Over these could use a fresh look. “perfect”? For GVSU, past five years, we’ve seen our books budgets We have lived with our this thought process boils begin to decrease due to the need to allocate theory of “Good Enough” down time and time again funds away from print materials to support for some time and contin- to what will ultimately other formats and resource types as well as ue to find it useful. With benefit our patrons the budget cuts. These reductions in funds, and limited resources we need most. Library leadership continued on page 22 Against the Grain / April 2019 21