Article: “Return on Investment for Collaborative Collection Development: A Cost-Benefit Evaluation of Consortia Purchasing”

Denise Pan, Yem Fong
Abstract: “This paper describes the cost-benefits and the return on investment of one consortium comprised of five separately administered libraries in the University of Colorado (CU) System. With a long history of collaboration, the libraries have developed an ideal cooperative arrangement for acquiring electronic content that is accessible across all campuses. The size and flexibility of this institution-based consortium allows it to be responsive and successful in collaborating across four campuses despite different sized budgets and unique local and institutional constraints. To demonstrate the value of jointly leveraging library budgets to university administrators, the authors conducted a consortium level cost-benefit analysis and describe the methodology used to quantify return on the university’s investment. This paper addresses both qualitative and quantitative outcomes and underscores how consortial participation has become an essential way of doing business.”

“Helping Libraries Thrive: Keeping Our Eyes on the Strategic Objectives”

Check out this thoughtful article on the new economies of libraries and how cooperative purchases need to change by Tom Sanville, Director of Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at LYRASIS.

Excerpt: “Let’s start with the hard realities. The prospects for library budget growth are minimal even as user expectations, information production and information prices all are on the rise. To boot, the increasingly rapid expansion and rate of technology changes require an almost constant retooling of library technology. And, contrary to popular belief, the quality information that library users need was not free in print and other hard formats, and it is not and will not be free in electronic formats—at least not the most current information. These realities have intensified, but they are not new. For decades, libraries have developed the means to sometimes overcome and to sometimes simply cope with these hard realities. How do they do it? They employ the primary tools of cooperation and collaboration.”

ICOLC 11th Fall Meeting in Paris

The ICOLC 11th Fall Meeting will take place in Paris October 25 – 28, 2009.  ICOLC is the International Coalition of Library Consortia.

The conference will be held at the Maison de la Mutualité.
Your local host is the French consortium Couperin.  The conference is mainly targeted at information professionals with an interest in consortia licensing. ICOLC conferences are not generally open for commercial players in the publishing market. Publishers/vendors will be invited to participate in the grill sections.  To get more information about the International Coalition of Library Consortia, please visit the ICOLC website.  Starting with an evening reception on Sunday, October 25, 2009, meetings take place from Monday, October 26 to Wednesday October 28 morning.

“Unlocking the 21st Century Library” Call for Papers

On behalf of the Conference Organizing Committee, we would like to invite you to submit a proposal for the Access Services Conference 2009, “Unlocking the 21st Century Library”. This year’s event will be held at Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta, GA from November 11-13, 2009. Topics include Interlibrary loan, consortia agreements, and current technology.

The Access Services Conference is an opportunity for individuals working in all areas of Access Service in libraries to gather information and communicate with other professionals about Circulation, Reserves, Interlibrary Loan, Student Worker Management, Security, Stacks Maintenance, and other topics of interest. We invite program proposals from March 30 until 5pm, July 15, 2009.