ACQUISITION AND IMPLEMENTATION

ELIZABETH SZKIRPAN

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

IN THIS COURSE, WE WILL LEARN:

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• WHAT ELECTRONIC RESOURCES ARE AND THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESOURCES
• HOW WE INVESTIGATE AND VET NEW RESOURCES
• CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING NEW RESOURCES
• HOW ACQUIRING AND IMPLEMENTING NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES FIT INTO THE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LIFE CYCLE

AGENDA

01

INTRODUCTIONS

02

INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

03

INVESTIGATING NEW CONTENT

04

LICENSING NEW CONTENT

05

LICENSING CLAUSES

06

EXAMPLES AND RESOURCES TO HELP WITH LICENSING

07

IMPLEMENTING NEW RESOURCES

08

LICENSING AND RENEGOTIATING EXISTING CONTENT

HOUSEKEEPING

THIS COURSE IS PART OF THE AMIGOS ELECTRONIC RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (ERM) MICROCREDENTIAL.

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• You can take courses individually or complete all three ERM courses plus a capstone project to earn the microcredential.
• Each course includes an assignment to be completed after the class session.
• To earn the microcredential, you must complete all course assignments and the self-paced capstone project.
• The capstone project is a three-part assignment reflecting the electronic resources lifecycle, using skills and resources covered in the ERM courses. Students have several weeks after the courses conclude to complete and submit the project.

INTRODUCTIONS

PLEASE SHARE:

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• YOUR NAME
• YOUR ROLE OR TITLE
• THE TYPE OF ENVIRONMENT YOU WORK IN (SMALL/MEDIUM/LARGE, PUBLIC/ACADEMIC/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, PUBLIC/PRIVATE)
• YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WINTER

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

An electronic resource is defined as a resource which requires computer access or any electronic product that delivers a collection of data refer to full text bases, electronic journals, image collections, other multimedia products and numerical, graphical or time based, as a commercially available title that has been published with an aim to being marketed. These may be delivered on CD ROM, on tape, via Internet and so on.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Electronic resource management (ERM) is the practices and techniques used by librarians and library staff to track the selection, acquisition, licensing, access, maintenance, usage, evaluation, retention, and de-selection of a library's electronic information resources.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LIFECYCLE

There are six stages in the iterative e-resource lifecycle: investigation of new content, acquiring new content, implementation, ongoing evaluation and access, annual review, and cancellation and replacement review.

BASIC RESOURCES

Basic resources are straightforward to manage. Vendors are typically used to working with libraries so setup and maintenance is easy.

Examples: Resources provided by library-oriented vendors, robust support services, reliable service, easy to extract data from platform.

COMPLEX RESOURCES

Complex resources occupy the majority of an electronic resources librarian’s time. These resources may have special setup/terms of use, require lots of maintenance, or vendors may be unused to working with libraries.

Examples: Small vendors, industry-specific vendors, startup products, “small fish in a big pond” issues, extensive or reoccurring service downtime.

OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES

“Open Access Resources are research materials have been made available to the general public, free of charge: data and datasets, books and articles, including scholarly research articles.”

Open Access requires the same scrutiny as other electronic resources to ensure that content is appropriate for your users and OA resources may pose unique ERM challenges.

DISCUSSION #1

What is something you find challenging about electronic resources and/or electronic resource management?

INVESTIGATING NEW CONTENT

We investigate new electronic resources for any number of reasons:

• Requests from our community/users
• Fill in gaps in our collection or resource needs
• Replace an existing resource for more content, to work with a different vendor, to use an updated platform, and/or costs
• Vendor cold calls, promotions, or pitches
• New product enters the market
• Changes in our environment create new needs (e.g. AI)

DISCUSSION #2

There are a variety of ways in which we might decide to vet a new electronic resource. What are some of your personal or institutional criteria for consideration of new content?

ACQUIRING NEW CONTENT

Acquiring new content can take many steps:

• Request for new content initiated
• Selection criteria considered
• Initiate conversation with vendor
• Establish a trial or demo
• Collect and assess feedback forms and usage data
• Make a decision
• Licensing and negotiation
• Resource setup and initiation

SELECTION CRITERIA

Selecting new resources can be based on a number of criteria at your library and institution including:

• Collection development policies
• Discoverability, accessibility
• Prior relationship with vendor
• Community need or desire
• Overlap with existing resources, uniqueness
• Supports programs or initiatives underway at your institution

ASSESSMENT

What feedback have you received using an official avenue (like a form), via email, or by word of mouth? How have you solicited feedback?

FEEDBACK

Which of your peer institutions provide access to this resource? How does it stack up again resources you have or are aware of?

ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN

How does this resource overlap with content you already provide access to? Does it bring anything unique to the table?

OVERLAP

DISCUSSION #3

What factors feed into your library’s decision to acquire a new resource?

MAKING A DECISION

Additional factors can also feed into our decision-making, such as:

• The vendor and our prior relationship or the vendor’s reputation
• Administrative requests
• Resource complexity
• Cost and estimated annual increases

BREAK

Please take a ten (10) minute break!

ACQUIRING NEW RESOURCES

AKA: LICENSING

TYPES OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LICENSING

Electronic resources licensing may be governed by:

• Master Service Agreements (MSAs)
• Site Licenses or Product Licenses
• Order Forms
• Non-Legal Binding Agreements Like SERU (NISO’s Shared E-Resource Understanding)

SECTIONS OF AN AGREEMENT OR LICENSE

Licenses or agreements generally have:

• Preambles summarizing what the document is and which parties are involved
• Definitions that explicitly outline what is being paid for and who can use it
• Conditions and/or clauses

KEY THINGS TO REMEMBER

• Electronic resources licenseing can be simple or complex.
• Be honest with your vendors. Transparency regarding costs, needs, and dealbreakers upfront can save time and frustration.
• Generally, any point of a license or service agreement is negotiable. Some vendors will accept changes readily and others will not.

CLAUSES TO LOOK FOR: PRICING AND USERS

Costs, price caps, and auto-renewals

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Pay special attention to clauses outlining the costs, year-to-year renewal rates, multi-year costs, and auto-renewals. Your specific institution may have guidelines for these money-related fees that guide your license. You can also include clauses that combat cost increases, like multi-year agreements and annual price increase caps.

Defining Users

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Especially in higher education, make sure that your licenses allow for on and off-campus use, reproductions for classroom distribution, allowance for research, and similar. While Fair Use should cover many academic uses, clearly defining users and their expected use is helpful.

CLAUSES TO LOOK FOR: PRIVACY AND ACCESSIBILITY

Privacy

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Privacy is a growing concern in library electronic resources. State laws may govern your library’s privacy practices and many librarians feel that protecting patron data is a clear extension of protecting patron privacy. Look for clauses in your licenses that iterate how your vendors will protect and handle your user data. If you do not see a clause, ask your vendor for their privacy policy and whether they are governed by GDPR.

Accessibility

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Accessibility concerns are also on the rise so make sure to look for clauses that speak to the vendor’s accessibility assessment and future plans to improve.

CLAUSES TO LOOK FOR: ACCESS AND SUPPORT

Perpetual Access

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Perpetual access clauses were more common in electronic resources licensing 10+ years ago with many vendors phasing out the clause since the early aughts. If you are licensing journal, serial, and eBook content, look for any clauses that speak to your ownership of content if you ever stop subscribing.

Technical Support

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Should a product unexpectedly have downtime, experience a catastrophic failure, or require technical updates, a technical support clause can save time and frustration should you have to quickly identify the correct contact to report an issue. Systems and solutions should especially have clauses speaking to compensation or course of action if there is too much unplanned downtime.

CLAUSES TO LOOK FOR: VENUE AND EXIT

Venue of Agreement

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Keep an eye out for the venue (governing body) of the agreement. Many large library vendors will have offices in multiple countries so they are both willing and able to write the agreement to be governed by U.S. contract laws. However, other vendors, especially those that are smaller and less used to academic licensing, may iterate governance in other countries.

Exit Clauses

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COVID-19 and multi-year library budgeting issues have demonstrated that libraries may be asked to unexpectedly cut resources with little planning. As well, products with significant technical issues or downtime may require libraries to exit a contract. Include clauses that allow the library to exit the contract early if needed.

LICENSE EXAMPLES

California Digital Library Licensing Toolkit

CopyrightLaws.com

LibLicense

NISO SERU

HONORABLE MENTION: GENERATIVE AI

CAVEATS:

• GENERATIVE AI (GEN AI) IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS CODE AND ITS PROMPTS.
• GEN AI IS NOT A LAWYER AND CANNOT HELP YOU DECEIPHER LEGAL CONTRACTS.
• GEN AI IS A TOOL. IT CAN HELP YOU MAKE AN OUTLINE OR EDIT A WRITTEN DOCUMENT BUT IT IS A POOR CREATOR.

PROMPT:

DRAFT A SAMPLE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LICENSE FOR A LIBRARY TO LICENSE SITE-LEVEL ACCESS FOR A UNIVERSITY'S FACULTY, STUDENTS, STAFF, AND AFFILIATES.

SIGNING THE CONTRACT

Make sure that you clearly understand what you can and cannot sign at your institution, including:

• Price limits
• Multi-year agreements
• Institutional signing authority and contract review

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IMPLEMENTING NEW CONTENT

We’ve researched and trialed our new platform, have secured funding, negotiated and executed a service agreement with the vendor and now we’re ready to launch!

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HOW WILL USERS ACCESS THE RESOURCE?

TRAINING

MARKETING

We’ve researched and trialed our new platform, have secured funding, negotiated and executed a service agreement with the vendor and now we’re ready to launch! Marketing and advertising may be critical in ensuring the success of a new resource. Investigate options like:

• Vendor-supplied swag
• Introducing the resource in instruction sessions, during orientation events, and at relevant meetings
• Showcasing the resource on the library’s website frontpage
• Physical advertisements by way of posters and handouts

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RESOURCE DESCRIPTION AND ACCESS

Ensure that the resource is findable by:

• Entering it into the library’s catalog
• Including the resource in your database or journal list
• Creating a resource-specific research guide or including the resource on a relevant existing research guide
• Using the right keywords and subject headings that our users may be using

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THE NEXT PHASE OF THE LIFECYCLE

Implementing new resources come with their bumps so once the resource is well-established, you can review usage statistics, user feedback, and your experience with technical challenges so far to prepare for future vendor conversations or relicensing.

CONSIDERATIONS: USAGE STATISTICS

After a reasonable amount of time has passed, begin regularly checking the usage of your new resource. Is it being discovered and used as-expected? What factors impact use? After a year has passed, determine whether the use justified the cost.

CONSIDERATIONS: USER FEEDBACK

You can collect user feedback in a variety of ways to gather evidence supporting or not supporting renewal. Ask a variety of questions to best understand how your users learned of the resource, how it is being used, how it might be improved, and whether it meets user expectations.

CONSIDERATIONS: TECHNICAL

Have you worked with the resource’s technical support at all? If so, were they helpful and responsive? Has the platform experienced downtime?

WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE?

ELIZABETH SZKIRPAN, MLIS

Email:

eszkirp@gmail.com

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/

szkirp

ASSIGNMENT

Complete and upload to the course page.

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Analyze an agreement from California Digital Library. Identify the good qualities, areas where it is lacking, and what you might change for your own library.

RESOURCES

• Emery, J., Stone, G., & McCracken, P. (2020). Techniques for electronic resource management : TERMS and the transition to open. ALA Editions.
• Copyrightlaws.com. (2023, February 2). A Simple Guide to Licensing Electronic Resources: How to Address Your Licensing Issues with Confidence. https://www.copyrightlaws.com/simple-guide-licensing-electronic-resources/
• University of California: California Digital Library. (2023, September 11). Licensing Toolkit. https://cdlib.org/services/collections/licensed/toolkit/
• Center for Research Libraries: Global Resources Network. (2023). LibLicense: Licensing Digital Contents – A Resource for Librarians. https://liblicense.crl.edu/
• National Information Standards Organization (NISO). (2012, May). SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding (NISO RP-7-2012). Baltimore, Maryland: National Information Standards Organization (NISO). https://groups.niso.org/higherlogic/ws/public/download/8593/RP-7-2012_SERU.pdf

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