Presentation
The Librarian's Survival Guide to the 'Big Deal': Tools for Unbundling
Charleston Conference
(2016)
Abstract
In 2016, the Canadian loonie fell to 77% of the U.S. dollar, creating unexpected financial challenges for collections management. Examining usage statistics was the clear first place to start when evaluating resources for cancellation - but would data-driven decisions based purely on cost per use be adequate?
In this joint presentation by Western University and EBSCO Information Services, we will look beyond cost per use, and focus on how Western built on the "big deal" analysis work initiated by the University de Montreal, adding a journal overlap analysis and home-grown method of performing citation analysis using Web of Science and Scopus to determine where university researchers and their collaborators are publishing. Early results from selected publisher packages show that Western is able to save nearly half the "big deal" sticker price with minimal impact to researchers and students.
We will also discuss our collaborative work with other Canadian universities through the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). EBSCO Information Services will demonstrate how they helped inform this process by providing title cost and usage data.
Disciplines
Publication Date
November 3, 2016
Location
Charleston, South Carolina
Citation Information
Leanne Olson, Alie Visser, Samuel Cassady and Doug Lynch. "The Librarian's Survival Guide to the 'Big Deal': Tools for Unbundling" Charleston Conference (2016) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/alie-visser/10/