University Library W(h)ither the big deal Is e-journal purchase about to fragment? Martin Gill Faculty Team Leader Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Team University of Leeds

University Library Outline What is the big deal about? Analysing the big deals at Leeds The future

University Library Benefits Increased and instant access to a wide range of information 9000 to titles in a decade Space savings Reduced ILL costs Ease of administration

University Library And the reality Mergers Transfers of titles Archival rights No cancellation deals Link to historic print spend Free trials Late announcement of deals Above inflation cost increases, exchange rates, VAT…..

University Library Wider environment Browne report Comprehensive spending review Marketisation of Higher Education Expectations of the digital generation

University Library The Leeds context VC is Chair of Russell Group It has taken more than 800 years to create one of the world's greatest education systems and it looks like it will take just six months to bring it to its knees – Guardian 11 th January 2010 University of Leeds economies exercise - £35m savings target from 2010/11

University Library Leeds University Library 3 years of efficiency savings 1%, 5%, 10%, more in 2011/12? Resource Allocation Model devolves decisions on materials spending to Schools Approx 40% of entire materials budget pays for 8 packages

University Library

Decisions for 2011 subscription year Requirement to make savings of approx £300k from the materials budget – approx 12% cut in real terms All subjects required to make savings Reviewed all top sliced subscriptions No option but to review package deals that were up for renewal and investigate those that werent Reviewed ILL costs

University Library Analysing the big deals - cost per use Headline figures show very good cost per use 10p/use to around £2.50/use overall Detail less good 99p/use to £99/use 4p/use to £590/use

University Library Cost per use – cost issues What price do you use? 2009, 2010, 2011? Do the titles on the invoice match those in your usage spreadsheet? What rate of exchange do you factor in? When will the terms of a package deal be announced? Analysis done in March - packages announced October/November

University Library Cost per use – use issues What is use Pdf, html, both? Are the figures reliable, believable? Marketing issues Multiple sources for a title Transfer titles

University Library Cost per use calculations How do you match Price and use lists? ISSN? Manual correction

University Library Cost per use decisions Decided on a cut-off point for cost per use Compared the costs of subscribing to journals below that point to the cost of the package 2 packages cancelled, others may follow

University Library Academic reaction Cost per use a good starting point Some issues around it being too crude – also give impact factors in the future? As a factor in the calculations? As additional evidence? Some concerns that wider measures of value, e.g. impact, links to research income

University Library The answer Is the big deal doomed? Some probably are Is the answer open access? Changes to the publishing marketplace? Do we need so many journals? Without a big deal would (should) some have died?

University Library Journal use

University Library Risks Still awaiting academic reaction when the cuts actually happen 2760 titles disappear on 1 st January Will the prices of individual titles mysteriously rise? Will the price of heavily used titles rise? What would the world look like without big deals?

University Library The future Librarians need to develop skills Negotiation – are we customer or intermediary? Data analysis Publishers need to engage with us More transparency around price rises Why are their more issues per volume this year? What value will your website improvements actually bring?

University Library The capacity of UK universities to continue to pay such large year-on-year increases for access to scholarly journals is not infinite […] we need to reassess the costs of electronic access and find a new balance between the value added by publishers and the charges they make Michael Arthur – VC at Leeds, Chair of Russell Group – RLUK press release Nov 2010