Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries
E-resources Working Group

Report to the CARLI Board of Directors
December 16, 2005
Submitted by James Mouw, Chair

A summary of the E-resources Working Group’s activities since the November 18th Board meeting follows:

Fall Selection Cycle

A Fall round of database selections was conducted between October 17 and November 18. 69 CARLI member institutions selected 173 databases. This selection cycle represented the initial transition of former ICCMP databases from management by Northern Illinois University to the University of Illinois. Project Muse, American Chemical Society, and American Mathematical Society databases were successfully integrated. In addition, the ACS databases were converted from direct vendor billing to centralized consortial billing.

To make the transition as transparent as possible, both the paper based selection process used by ICCMP and the electronic selection process developed by IDAL were offered to subscribers. 47 libraries entered subscriptions electronically, 14 faxed back paper forms and 8 schools did both. The committee recommends that future selection cycles employ primarily electronic subscription methods. A paper option may be offered as an alternative, but large scale paper mailings should be eliminated.

Spring Selection Cycle

The CARLI E-resources Working Group advised the staff that the highest priorities for the Spring selection round are:

• Beginning the process as early as possible to accommodate institutional budget planning,
• Obtaining the best pricing possible, and
• Continuing the transition of ICCMP databases.

Staff have initiated the annual database interest survey. It runs from November 15 through December 16. Lists of interested subscribers will be forwarded to vendors, with a request for pricing. Negotiations will take place through ALA Midwinter.

Several additional databases will move from ICCMP to CARLI, most notably Lexis-Nexis databases (through SOLINET and with Lexis-Nexis directly) and ABC-CLIO.

LISTSERV

The CARLI E-resources Working  recommends that the Collections and Content Group (CCG@carli.illinois.edu) listserv, recently established at the request of  the Collections Working Group as an open discussion vehicle, be used to discuss e-resources issues also.  This would be in lieu of creating a separate e-resources.

CARLI E-resources Working Group Charge

Motion for Board action:

The CARLI E-resources recommends that the Group’s charge be revised as follows:

The Committee is advisory to CARLI staff and the CARLI Board and discusses new purchases and renewals of electronic resources. The Committee analyzes the  budget allocation from the consortium and makes recommendations for central purchases. The Committee identifies opportunities for reducing costs to members through the negotiation of brokered resources. The Committee develops policies and principles for the negotiation and acquisition of electronic information. The Committee determines appropriate methods for evaluating resources and gathering member feedback.