E-Forum: The Future of the Big Deal

October 18-19, 2011

Hosted by Rebecca Kemp and Rob Van Rennes.

Please join us for an e-forum discussion. It’s free and open to everyone!

Registration information is at the end of the message.

Each day, sessions begin and end at 10am – 6pm Eastern Time.

The economic downturn has forced many libraries to take a hard look at their “Big Deal” packages and reconsider whether it makes sense to continue with this type of purchasing model. Some have advocated for ending the large publisher packages as a cost-savings measure while others have argued that the vast amounts of content and the predictability of set pricing is too important to end. In this e-forum we hope to foster the debate on the pros and cons of the Big Deal in an effort to help familiarize librarians with the issues as they make their own assessments on the continuation of their publisher packages. Please join us for what we hope is a lively discussion on this current hot topic.

Topics will include:

• The advantages and disadvantages of current library Big Deal packages.
• The case for maintaining a Big Deal if certain modifications or improvements can be made.
• Information librarians should possess before negotiating with publishers.
• Considerations librarians should be mindful of when contemplating ending publisher packages.
• The potential difficulties in extracting your institution from a Big Deal.
• Alternative business models that could replace the Big Deal.
• Pay-per-view access to non-subscribed titles: a viable alternative to the Big Deal?
• Advice on canceling a Big Deal and unexpected consequences.
• The impact of canceling on faculty and other users.

Rebecca Kemp is the E-Resources Acquisitions Librarian for University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she was previously the Serials Coordinator Librarian at University of North Carolina Wilmington from 2004-2009. Her current responsibilities include reviewing e-resource licenses and managing e-resource acquisitions workflows. Rebecca has served on state and national committees that provide continuing education in the field of e-resource and serials librarianship, and she has spoken at several venues, including the North Carolina Serials Conference and the American Library Association Annual Conference, about various aspects of e-resource management, including MARC record services, e-resource usage statistics, and the presentation of e-resources in online catalogs.

Rob Van Rennes is an Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Iowa where he oversees the Electronic Resources staff. He is currently serving as the chair of the ALCTS CRS Acquisitions Committee and is actively involved with the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG). Rob holds Bachelor degrees in History and German from the University of Northern Iowa and a MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa.

*What is an e-forum?*

An ALCTS e-forum provides an opportunity for librarians to discuss matters of interest, led by a moderator, through the e-forum discussion list. The e-forum discussion list works like an email listserv: register your email address with the list, and then you will receive messages and communicate with other participants through an email discussion. Most e-forums last two to three days. Registration is necessary to participate, but it's free. See a list of upcoming e-forums at: http://bit.ly/upcomingeforum.

*To register:*

Instructions for registration are available at: http://bit.ly/eforuminfo. Once you have registered for one e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to leave the email list. Participation is free and open to anyone.