JISC Collections 21 April 2023 | Click: View=>Header&Footer | Slide 1

eBooks purchasing: Consortia Models

Carolyn Alderson & Hazel Woodward

JISC Collections

Welcome and Overview Agenda

eBook Context & Models to build on

Pilots:

– Knowledge Unlatched - making titles openly available

– Jisc eBooks Consortium Pilot – subject focus

– eBass25 Pilot – exploring the EBA model

Key Challenges of eBook consortia models

– Publishers, aggregators, libraries

Libraries harnessing shared eBook interests

Q&A

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JISC Collections

eBook Context & Models to Build on

A market full of complexities

A market with a wide variety of demands and increasing expectations

A market with emerging technologies

A market with plenty of history

Monographs, eTextbooks

Models

– Full Collections

– Subject Collections

– Patron Drive Acquisition

– Title Selection

– Evidence Based Acquisition

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JISC Collections

Knowledge Unlatched

“Knowledge Unlatched: enabling open access for scholarly books in the arts and humanities”

Essentially, the KU model depends on many libraries around the world sharing the payment of a single Title Fee to the publisher, in return for a book being made available on a Creative Commons licence via OAPEN and HathiTrust as a fully downloadable PDF

As more libraries participate in KU, the per-library cost of ‘unlatching’ each title declines

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JISC Collections

Knowledge Unlatched: how it works

Publishers

– Offer titles & set Title Fee

– Post open book

– Sell premium version

KU

– Negotiates with publishers

– Collates titles

– Handles payments & preservation

Libraries

– Select & order titles

– Pay Title Fee

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JISC Collections

Knowledge Unlatched: the Pilot

The Pilot aims to secure pledges from at least 200 libraries worldwide, in order to unlatch a collection of 28 titles from 13 scholarly publishers

In January 2014 over 170 libraries from 12 countries had signed up

Moreover, in December KU received backing from HEFCE who agreed to make a grant of up to £550 to all universities in England that participate in the pilot

This reduces the participation fee paid by English university libraries by 50%

The deadline is 28th February 2014

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JISC Collections 21 April 2023 | Click: View=>Header&Footer | Slide 7

http://www.slideshare.net/sconul/jisc-e-books-consortia-project

JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot project

The pilot project had a very simple business model which was based on a model trialled by Max Planck Institute (Germany) and CBUC (Spain)

Consortium of 6 UK academic libraries with large Engineering Faculties

6 publishers of engineering books (some large engineering publishers excluded as libraries had existing big deals)

Whenever one of the libraries purchased an ebook, all libraries had access

‘Price multiplier’ negotiated with each publisher. In the pilot this was paid by Jisc Collections. In a ‘real life’ consortium it would be split among the libraries

Usage data (COUNTER BR1 & BR2) collected and analysed by Information Power Ltd.

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: participants

Libraries

– Cranfield University; Loughborough University; Newcastle University; Brunel University; University of Southampton; University of Liverpool

Publishers

– Artech House; Cambridge University Press (CUP); Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); Taylor & Francis (T&F); Wiley; World Scientific Publishing (WSP)

Hosting service

– Dawson Books - Dawsonera

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: implementation

It had been hoped to run the pilot from August 2013 through to July 2014

However, negotiations with publishers and hosting services took longer than expected and libraries were slow to start ordering title

There were workflow issues for both libraries and the Dawson

Delay in the provision of MARC records (which research has demonstrated are vital to discovery) may have had a bearing on usage

First orders were placed in December 2012

The pilot was up and running!

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: findings

Very high usage of ebooks

All libraries got more value than they purchased

98.6% of ebooks were used by at least 1 library

Percentage of ebooks purchased and not used by an individual library averaged 7%. (This is a very low figure compared to recent PDA studies in Germany and the USA)

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: overall analysis

% purchased % used % used but not purchased

% purchased but not used

Library 1 34% 95% 61% 1%

Library 2 25% 52% 27% 11%

Library 6 15% 42% 26% 8%

Library 4 13% 49% 35% 6%

Library 5 13% 27% 15% 9%

Library 3 0% 20% 100% 0%

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: purchase analysis

No. purchased but not used

No. used but not purchased

No. of library’s purchases used by others

Library 3 72% 189% 94%

Library 6 50% 218% 77%

Library 4 43% 154% 100%

Library 2 42% 305% 100%

Library 5 4% 185% 85%

Library 1 0% 250% 0%

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: usage analysis

Use of purchased Use of non-purchased

Use by others of library’s purchases

Library 4 2246 4932 3753

Library 6 1589 3532 3875

Library 5 1491 1633 4675

Library 3 320 3828 1271

Library 2 252 48 2497

Library 1 0 1210 0

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JISC Collections

What did librarians think of the pilot?

5 out of the 6 libraries said they would be interested in pursuing consortial ebook purchasing using this business model

In the light of the data they were pleased with both the level of use of titles they had purchased, and their use of titles purchased by other institutions

They would be happy to put money into a consortial ‘pot’ to widen their access to ebook titles (funds permitting)

One librarian commented: “Increased access is the real benefit and saving money is a bonus”

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JISC Collections

Ebook consortia pilot: types of consortia

Librarians commented that the important factor in a consortia is having synergy between the libraries (e.g. research/ teaching focused)

The majority favoured subject-based ebook consortium

The portfolio of publishers participating in the consortia was very important

Most favoured a minimum level of financial commitment from participating libraries

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JISC Collections

What did the publishers think?

The majority of publishers were disappointed with the sales figures but, on the whole, were pleased and very interested in the usage data

In general, the smaller publishers were most enthusiastic…”our role as a publisher is to get our content out there…. we need to get our brand noticed”

All publishers commented that they needed to protect the value of their titles

Of the 3 larger publishers only one was positive about the business model. However, they felt that a variable price multiplier would be necessary to enable them to offer both back list and current high demand titles

One publisher said they were very interested in evidence based purchasing and would like Jisc Collections to pursue that model

Another publishers said “we are keen to work with library consortia but we don’t like shared ownership/collections… we would rather give a discount”

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JISC Collections 23rd September 2013 | KAFEC| Slide 18

E-BASS25, funded by Jisc as part of their Digital Infrastructure Programme in 2012/13, was led by Royal Holloway University of London on behalf of the M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries.

Specific named partners were: Kingston UniversityScience Museum (on behalf of the Museum Librarians and Archivists Group)JISC Collectionsand SERO Consulting Limited.

JISC Collections

Some points to note from the eBASS25 Pilot

Role of Jisc Collections in the pilot

– Publishers

EBASS 25, Work Package 5 - Procurement Guidelines

Books Tender Agreement – designed for suppliers who are either aggregators or booksellers

The Evidence Based Acquisition Model is only available directly from publishers.

Research carried out in EBASS 25 Workshop with libraries suggested this model was the preferred model for consortial purchasing of E-Books.

– Less DRM issues

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http://digirep.rhul.ac.uk/file/5b85dab5-7bf4-7c7b-7731-b552f029e4ae/1/EBASS%2025%20Work%20Package%205%20Procurement%20Guidelines.pdf

JISC Collections

Example: Cambridge University Press EBA eBooks Opt in

Institutions opt for 12 months or 6 months access to either all monographs or to specified subject collections. (The total list price of the complete monographs collection is over £1,250,000).

Prepayment uses Jisc Banded pricing 12 month access option:

At the mid-point of the agreement (end of 6 months) institutions must use 33% of their upfront payment by selecting books up to that value to keep in perpetuity by the end of the 7 th month. At the end of the 12 month period the institution decides the remainder of the selection of books to keep in perpetuity based on usage (or other criteria). This decision is made by the end of the 13th month.

 6 month access option:

At the end of the 6 month period the institution shall decide the selection of books to keep in perpetuity based on usage (or other criteria). This decision is made by the end of the 7th month

Humanities, Social Sciences, or STM

How to convert to a closed consortium agreement?

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JISC Collections

EBA as a consortium model

In advance:

–What content to access? Years / subjects / All

–Each institution has to contribute an amount upfront

• How is that decided? What amount is relevant for each institution?

• How much will the combined deposit buy at the end?

• Will it buy shared content?

– What will be the cost of a title in that case? Multiplier?

– Usage analysis

–What if more content is required than the prepayment covers?

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JISC Collections

Assessing the EBA Model

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Total EBA Prepayment agreed £100,000Multiplier agreed to share across all members 2.5Number of member libraries in consortium 12Total titles purchased at end of year 400Average cost per title including multiplier £250Total COUNTER usage 250,000Average cost per download £0.40

If no consortium dealCost of books purchased at standard rates £40,000 e.g. £100 eachMultiplied by number of libraries £480,000Saving through consortium purchase £380,000

JISC Collections

Usage cost allocation v original EBA contribution

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Libraryown usage of

purchased titles% of total

usageUsage cost allocation?

1 3000 1.20% £1,200.002 40000 16.00% £16,000.003 30000 12.00% £12,000.004 1500 0.60% £600.005 6000 2.40% £2,400.006 12000 4.80% £4,800.007 3300 1.32% £1,320.008 80000 32.00% £32,000.009 5000 2.00% £2,000.0010 5200 2.08% £2,080.0011 60000 24.00% £24,000.0012 4000 1.60% £1,600.00

Totals 250000 100.00% £100,000.00

How does usage cost allocation compare to original contribution?

JISC Collections

Key Challenges

Publishers

– Knowing who is in the consortium and requirements

– Protecting revenue

Aggregators

– Workflows

– Appropriate usage to publishers and libraries

– Reporting

Libraries

– Gaining commitment and consensus

– Organisation, workflows

– Negotiating the deal (price, DRM etc)

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JISC Collections

Libraries: Harnessing Shared eBooks purchasing

Planning

– Leading the consortium / co-ordinating the activity day to day

– Committing budget at the outset

– Which content and which model?

– Sharing the cost

– Publishers / Aggregators

– Licensing

Setting objectives / Expectations/ Negotiating the deal

Reporting, Communication

Assessing the deal; Decision-making

The AGREEMENT; Invoicing and Payment

Usage analysis/ Assessment of the model

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How to go about all this?

JISC Collections

Q & A

Contact details:

Carolyn Alderson, Acting Head of Licensing, Jisc Collections and UKSG Education Officer - c.alderson@jisc-collections.ac.uk

Hazel Woodward, Director, Information Power Ltd. - hazel.woodward73@gmail.com

21 April 2023 | | Slide 26