Collections Committee
Preliminary Agenda for meeting of September 18, 2:00pm
- Heard Database listings for restricted resources
- E-Trials Blog
- Springer E-books trial/revised offer
- Open access publishing - further discussion
- Ebrary e-books
- Proquest Digital Dissertations upgrade
- CRL Purchase proposals
Collections Committee - Minutes September 18, 2007
Attendees: Mary Beth Blalock, Deborah Broadwater, Deborah Brooks, Eileen Crawford, Sue Davis, Bill Hook (Chair), Lee Ann Lannom, Mary Miles Prince, Kathy Smith, Holling Smith-Borne, Mary Ellen Wilson, Roberta Winjum, and Carlin Sappenfield.
CRL Purchase Proposals: Bill reminded members of the opportunity to nominate titles to be purchased by the Center for Research Libraries and the September 30 deadline. He requested that proposals be sent to him a few days before the end of the month so he would have time to compile and submit our nominations to CRL by the deadline.
PQ Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Upgrade: After receiving a faculty request to upgrade our current subscription of PQ Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) to include full-text of all dissertations and theses available electronically, Mary Beth acquired a current quote (based on the number of doctoral degrees awarded each year) and Sue Erickson obtained ILL statistics for dissertations and theses from Jim Toplon so we would have a better idea of some of the factors involved in upgrading our subscription. During the 2006/2007 year, 1,422 dissertations/theses were received on ILL (876 loans and 546 copies for patrons to keep). The total cost of providing indexing and abstracting plus full-text of all dissertations and theses is $35,385 a year. The $7,725 currently paid for indexing and abstracting can be used to cover some of the cost but the upgrade will still be a substantial annual increase of $27,660. Providing full-text of all of the dissertations/theses was viewed as a valuable system-wide service but identifying funds to cover $27,660 annually plus annual increases of approximately 5% will be a challenge. The issue will be revisited later this year.
Open Access Publishing: Although we have briefly discussed open access publishing in the past, our role(s) and the extent of our participation in this endeavor have not yet been determined. Tracy Primich explored several publishers and provided an excel file containing information (2005-2007) about 7 OA publishers and one company that provides support and free software to those who wish to publish an OA journal. Publishers included Biomed Central, Copernicus, Libertas Academica. Nucleic Acids Research/Oxford University Press, Public Library of Science, and Science Publications. Of these six, two have membership cost, their journals are included in our SFX knowledge base, and Vanderbilt faculty have articles in all but two. Membership costs can pose a problem as they increase as faculty participation increases. Discussion on this issue will continue.
Heard Database Listing and Restricted Resources: Currently electronic resources that are restricted to faculty and students of specific schools or programs are not included on the Articles and Databases web page. Should they be included? Several issues were raised during the discussion. The value of having all resources listed was recognized as a value in making the list as comprehensive as possible but was viewed mainly as a benefit for library staff. Several members, however, voiced concerns about user confusion and public relation problems caused by having the restricted resources listed when these resources are only available to a limited number of users. Bill mentioned that Dale Poulter was investigating ways to migrate the listing on MetaLib and that the way we present databases will be a major question for discussion over the next year. In the meantime, he will respond to the questions that arise based on the group’s discussion.
E-Trial Blog: The E-Trial Blog created by Janice Adlington is a vast improvement over the previous Trial Databases webpage. Two issues were raised—how to keep the blog current until a new Electronic Resources Librarian is hired and could we increase the usefulness of the blog by adding access links on other web pages. Mary Beth agreed to post trials to the blog during the interim; Bill agreed to serve as a backup. Several options were discussed for additional links to the E-Trial Blog. There seemed to be little interest in adding a link to another staff web page but support for a link on the Articles & Databases page with access limited to Vanderbilt users. Bill will consult with Suellen Stringer-Hye regarding the possibility of adding the link on the Articles & Databases page.
E-books: Several e-book offers—Springer, Ebrary, Credo (formerly XreferPlus)—are currently under consideration. When we purchase an e-books or e-book packages, a record for each title is added to Acorn so the catalog will reflect our holdings and provide direct access to the each e-book. A question was raised about adding records for titles available via Google Scholar. Several concerns were raised including the fact that Acorn represents our core of scholarly works that reflects our local collection of carefully selected resources as well as the value of the collection, quality of the records that are loaded, and the fact that the records will eventually be retrieved by PRIMO. On the other hand, journals from big package deals include journals that we have not specifically selected yet these journals are being used. Are we restricting ourselves unnecessarily? PRIMO may provide a broader perspective and retrieve these resources without adding records to Acorn. The issue is a long-term discussion issue that will be revisited.
Announcements: Mary Miles Prince distributed information on three Cengage (Gale) electronic resources of interest to the Law Library and asked if other libraries were interested in the titles. Resources included The Making of Modern Law: Trials, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and the Economist. Mary Beth indicated some interest in the Economist and 19th Century U.S. Newspapers but added that Central could not commit to cost sharing because of the current materials budget and expected expenses for existing subscription titles.
Mary Beth mentioned that trials of Credo Reference (formerly XreferPlus) are now available and asked if other libraries were interested in a trial. Two subscription options—100 titles of our choice for $4,010 a year or the entire collection (now 260 titles) for $6,016 a year. There was enough interest to check all of the titles against Acorn to document our current holdings. Once this project has been completed, Credo Reference will be added to the agenda for further discussion.
Mary Beth announced a visit by our new ProQuest/CSA representative, Chako Morgan, on Thursday, September 20.
Submitted by Mary Beth Blalock