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DRAFT Minutes of the meeting held 8 December 2004Conference Room, National Library of Australia Present:
Apologies: Public Libraries Australia; Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Introductory remarks There is some level of confusion about the term 'national site licensing'. It is unlikely that there are many products for which a national site license would be appropriate. The needs of various library sectors differ considerably, and a range of approaches will be needed to achieve the best outcome. This may mean broadening the base of some existing consortia, so that smaller libraries not covered by consortia can gain access to resources. EPIC
The service is self-funding. The costing model has 10 bands, each determined on varying mixes of collection budget and population base factors. The model will be reviewed at the end of 12 months. Governance is the responsibility of the EPIC Governance Group (EGG), which represents the various types of libraries in the service. The National Library is the host agency, and maintains the contracts with libraries and with vendors. The partnership with vendors is seen as very important, and performance clauses in the vendor contracts have ensured a high level of responsiveness to users' needs. Training is a high priority task, to build the skills base around the country. In response to a query from Diane Costello about non-participants, Fiona said a variety of factors can be identified, including a lack of suitable technology and funding. Pru Mitchell commented that for schools the situation is much more complex here in Australia, with public, Catholic and independent schools, administered at state or local levels. ALIA Many Australians already have access to a wide range of electronic resources, but few are aware of this. Many people, for example, do not know what is available through their local public library. Not enough resources are invested in awareness and training programs for librarians and users. ALIA is also active in lobbying for improved infrastructure, particularly in regional areas, and is putting effort into ensuring the needs of libraries and their users are taken into account in the National Broadband Strategy. While some present at the meeting believed interlibrary loan is declining because so much is now available online, Moyra said the issue keeps coming up in the ALIA forums, and many smaller libraries cannnot afford to access electronic resources. There is an issue with the availability of interlibrary loans from electronic resources. While most licences permit such use, institutional practices or a lack of awareness by relevant staff often prevent such copying. Eve Woodberry asked if the smaller libraries make use of commercial document suppliers. Moyra replied that some do, but many don't, and very urgent requests are not well catered for. Jill More said many small libraries would know little if anything about commercial suppliers. Fiona Rigby was asked about promotion of EPIC in New Zealand, and replied that there was only limited promotion, which was aimed at libraries, not users. Jan Fullerton asked about infrastructure issues. Karen Vitullo said that the Australian Bureau of Statistics is looking at different ways of releasing data from the 2006 Census, because of the improved availability of broadband. Eve Woodberry said the availability of adequate infrastructure was still very patchy. The University of New England has set up a number of access centres in a number of very small centres, to assist its students in those areas.M There appeared to be widespread agreement that any national licensing should focus on Australian resources. AGLIN
A slide outlining the issues pointed to:
There is a high degree of overlap between the products being considered by the AGLIN consortium and those available through the CASL consortium. The AGLIN list is:
In response to a question about the inclusion of agencies which do not have a library, Karen responded that AGLIN represents Australian government libraries, as well as parent departments and agencies. The question of funding models was raised. In CAUL self funding has proved to be a sustainable model. Gulliver is self funding, with all libraries paying a base fee, with additional payments based on population size and usage., although there is a cap on total payments. Steve O'Connor commented that consortia funding which relies on members taking up offers, rather than compulsory payments by all members, may not always be successful. The nature of the relationships with vendors was mentioned. In EPIC, the need for increased New Zealand content is important, and the local vendor representatives find that with the high level of commitment to EPIC shown by the library sector, they are in a better position to ask parent companies in the US to add more New Zealand content. In the university sector, paying up-front has not been so successful. The UK and Canada have both moved to opt-in models, and CAUL operates successfully in this way. CAUL's negotiating position with vendors tends to be to agree a price for an agreed number of subscribers. A discussion about the "big deal" journal arrangements noted that the selection process for individual/selected titles, as opposed to a package, is expensive for both libraries and vendors, and no vendors can supply all titles on a given wish list, as evidenced by the trial conducted by the California State University. There may, however, be some need for publishers to provide further breakdown of large packages. Eve Woodberry said that the final model could well be a national licence for a limited range of content, and other arrangements by various groups sitting under that. Health Libraries Australia ARLIS/ANZ A national site licence for Informit would be useful, but for subject-specific resources a user-pays model may be the way to go. For important electronic resources, the cost should be included in the core budget, not regarded as an add-on. Diane Costello said that the university libraries are continuing to work on the issue of walk-in access to electronic resources. In some cases where walk-in access is permitted in licence conditions, individual institutions still require authentication, and remote access remains a problem in many cases. John Arfield commented that the vendors must also look at this issue - if they want to sell products to small libraries they must develop models which facilitate this. Lindsay Harris said that there are some alternate models emerging. The recent US proposal requiring National Institutes of Health-funded research to be made available on free sites after six months is an example. However, the open access sites are not always user-friendly or easy to navigate. There is still strong demand in academia for research to appear in peer-reviewed journals, although the situation is changing slowly. Jerelynn Brown added that the State Library of New South Wales offers pay-for-use services through ILANET. Moyra McAllister said her company uses these for subject areas where they do not need to always have information at hand, such as medicine. Roxanne Missingham pointed out that many vendors are not willing to consider pay-per-search access models, although Diane Costello pointed out that some vendors have such a facility on their own site, even if it is not available to subscribers. Gulliver
Gulliver is not and opt-in service - all 44 Victorian public library services belong to the consortium, and are charged a base fee with a further payment based on population and usage. There is a maximum charge of $16,000, and total fees paid are $350,000. There is an opt-in service (BRUCE) which members can subscribe to separately. The ACT Library and Information Service has approached Gulliver about joining, and WA is investigating a partnership arrangement. Gulliver is also willing to explore opportunities for collaboration with NSW. CASL CAUL Eve stated that one of the initial tasks must be to define what is meant by national site licensing, who the audience it, and what the requirements might be for negotiating a licence. Diane Costello attends meetings of ICOLC, which sometimes brings a vendor in for an intensive session about products and business models. Vendors are also occasionally invited to CEIRC meetings, to provide information about their products and proposals. Diane added that CEIRC doesn't always get everything it wants from vendors. Jan Fullerton asked if the meeting wanted to recommend that a regular forum be set up, as a means of exchanging information and interacting with vendors. Lindsay Harris said it was essential such a forum not be along similar lines to the ALIA forums - the new body must not be seen as a professional development opportunity open to all, but rather, organisations must be called on to nominate representatives.
Anne Baly raised the issue of support for national site licensing at a government level. Jan Fullerton responded that the National Library is very aware of the realities. Anne-Marie Schwirtlich said the government must realise that such initiatives are essential if Australia's population is to be informed and educated. John Arfield proposed that a self-funded project be put in place, and Anne Baly agreed that demonstrated demand is the way to bring the issue to the attention of government. Jan Fullerton said that a group needed to be convened to look at possible content and audience for a national site licence.
Pru Mitchell reminded the meeting that it is also important that existing arrangements for access to electronic resources be promoted.
Warwick Cathro gave a brief explanation of the reasons for the recent CASL information access forum in Adelaide. Eric Wainwright (with assistance from some other attendees) was given the task of preparing an action plan based on the discussions at that meeting. ALIA was encouraged to continue to pursue the goal of ensuring library concerns are addressed in the National Broadband Strategy.
The issue of awareness of existing electronic resource availability was discussed further. AskNow is a good way of promoting electronic resources, although it is limited by the lack of access by schools to the subscription resources. Lynn Fletcher said it is TAFE students as well as school students who are unable to access these resources. There is a very wide range of interests and literacy levels among VET students, and it is a challenge to provide appropriate resources.
Jan Fullerton asked whether the needs of smaller libraries such as those represented by Jill More from ARLIS/ANZ had been addressed. Jill said that there needs to be further exploration of the possibilities of collaboration between state libraries and state art gallery libraries. Eve Woodberry said it would also be useful for those smaller libraries to talk to CEIRC. Some further work on "pay-per-search" options needs to be done. One of the great benefits of a true national site licence would be school student access - which would make students more informed users into the future, but could also be used in literacy programs. There was a brief discussion of the issue of budgets, which in small libraries in particular often don't allow for electronic subscriptions. Jan Fullerton said that there needs to be some clear thinking about what expenditure achieves the best outcomes for the users, rather than the librarians. Sally-Anne Leigh indicated that within CSIRO there is interest in the issue of archiving and preservation of electronic resources, to assure access into the future, and this issue will be considered for the agenda of the next meeting, which will be in about six months.
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