National Licensing Proposal

2005 Product Survey

In late 2005, the National Licensing Proposal Reference Group surveyed Australian libraries to find out what electronic products they had interest in.

Background

The survey was conducted following the National Licensing Forum in October 2005, to confirm the results of Forum discussions.  The survey instrument was made available on the National Library's website and Forum members encouraged their sectors to complete the survey. 

A total of 766 usable responses were received, covering all library sectors.  There were very good numbers of responses from school libraries and public libraries, the groups for whom national licences may offer most benefit.  To some extent the numbers and origin of responses do appear to reflect the encouragement the sector/state received from one or more members of the Reference Group, so is not totally representative. Nonetheless, the numbers are large enough that these results provide a good guide to the needs of Australian libraries for access to online resources.

Responses

The responses indicated  considerable variety in the number and subject matter of existing holdings of electronic resources, and also indicated that there are libraries in Australia which do not have the financial resources needed to access resources at present.

Conclusions

There appears to be a high level of interest in pursuing the national licensing initiative. The issue was raised in the recommendations of the 2003 report of the Senate Enquiry into Libraries in the Online Environment, and a range of sectoral groups have been negotiating pricing or licensing resources on behalf of their members for some years.  However, apart from the Cochrane database, which is licensed for Australia by the National Institute of Clinical Studies, there is no general national licensing of electronic resources. Over 90% of respondents to the survey were interested in taking advantage of national licensing arrangements.

There appears to be a high level of interest in pursuing the national licensing initiative. The issue was raised in the recommendations of the 2003 report of the Senate Enquiry into Libraries in the Online Environment, and a range of sectoral groups have been negotiating pricing or licensing resources on behalf of their members for some years.  However, apart from the Cochrane database, which is licensed for Australia by the National Institute of Clinical Studies, there is no general national licensing of electronic resources. Over 90% of respondents to the survey were interested in taking advantage of national licensing arrangements.

Over 20% of respondents were not at all interested in the licensing of a health resource, and only 21% ranked Health as their first or second choice.  Interestingly, Health and Wellness Resource Centre is the third most commonly subscribed-to product at the present time among the respondents.

Detailed results

Number of responses / locations

NSW

ACT

VIC

QLD

SA

WA

NT

TAS

Multi-state

TOTALS

School libraries

29

12

26

29

79

31

21

80

307

Primary

6

2

9

11

31

9

14

39

 

121

Secondary

14

6

8

9

24

12

3

21

 

97

k-12

9

4

9

9

24

10

4

20

 

89

Public libraries

39

-

32

13

17

21

2

-

 

124

*Joint use libraries

-

-

1

2

11

4

1

7

 

25

National /State libraries

1

1

1

 

 

1

1

1

1

7

Special libraries

40

26

28

14

10

5

2

8

6

139

Art

-

1

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

2

Corporate

2

-

2

1

-

-

-

1

-

6

Govt-state

21

-

7

3

4

-

1

4

-

40

Govt-

  federal

-

16

2

2

-

-

 

 

2

22

Health

11

-

6

4

2

5

-

1

-

29

Law

3

8

6

4

2

-

1

2

3

29

Other

3

1

5

-

1

-

-

-

1

11

Tertiary education libraries

30

3

28

17

3

9

-

3

1

93

TAFE

17

1

14

10

-

5

-

3

50

University

13

2

14

7

3

4

-

-

1

43

Other

 

1

3

1

1

1

2

4

1

14

No type given

6

2

3

9

18

5

3

11

 

57

totals

145

45

122

82

139

77

33

114

9

766

* the majority of Joint use libraries (16 of 25) are a school/public combination.

Present subscriptions to electronic resources

187 respondents (including 134, or 44%, of school library respondents) indicated they do not currently subscribe to any electronic resources. 

The majority of respondents (76%) indicated that they already have access to some electronic resources, and in some sectors, quite a large number of electronic resources. Schools appear to offer the least access at present.

The resources subscribed to by the greatest numbers of respondents are:

  • Australian New Zealand Reference Centre / EBSCO - 211 subscribers
  • Encyclop�dia Britannica - 170 subscribers
  • Health & Wellness Resource Centre / Thomson Gale - 150 subscribers
  • MacquarieNet - 108 subscribers
  • APAFT - 116 subscribers
  • Factiva - 99 subscribers
  • World Book - 95 subscribers
  • Oxford Reference Online / Oxford University Press - 66 subscribers
  • ANZ Newstand - 63 subscribers
  • eLibrary Australasia - 61 subscribers
  • Oxford English Dictionary / Oxford University Press - 37 subscribers
  • WebsterWorld - 35 subscribers
  • Standards Australia - 19 subscribers
  • Grolier - 18 subscribers
  • InfoTrac - 13 subscribers
  • LexisNexis - 11 subscribers
  • Magpies - 11 subscribers
  • Literature Resource Centre - 9 subscribers
  • Newstext - 9 subscribers
  • Building Code of Australia - 8 subscribers
  • Weblinks - 8 subscribers
  • Biography Resource Centre - 7 subscribers
  • Science Resource Centre - 7 subscribers
  • Business Who�s Who Australia - 6 subscribers
  • CCH - 6 subscribers
  • Informit (various) - 6 subscribers
  • NewsBank - 6 subscribers
  • ABI/Inform - 5 subscribers
  • SCIS - 5 subscribers
  • WebsterWorld - 2 subscribers
  • Who�s Who in Australia - 2 subscribers

A more detailed breakdown by major library type (for resources with 5 or more subscriptions in total) is provided below.

NB* For resources not specifically named in questionnaire, there may be many more subscriptions than are reflected in responses, because respondents named some products but may have omitted others.  With many hundreds available it was not possible to do a comprehensive survey of subscribed resources.  No universities, for example, named Informit products other than APAFT, although many subscribe to most of the available Informit databases.

ABI/Inform

  • Public libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 2 subscribers

ANZ Newstand

  • Public libraries: 35 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 8 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 9 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type libraries: 7 subscribers

Australia New Zealand Reference Centre

  • Public libraries: 83 subscribers
  • School libraries: 49 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 39 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 8 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 4 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 12 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 16 subscribers

APAFT

  • Public libraries: 18 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 58 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 22 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 5
  • Other or unknown type of library: 10 subscribers

Biography Resource Centre

  • Public libraries: 7 subscribers

Building Code of Australia

  • Public libraries : 5 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 3 subscribers

Business Who�s Who of Australia

  • Public libraries: 4 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 2 subscribers

CCH

  • Tertiary libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 4 subscribers

eLibrary Australasia

  • Public libraries: 9 subscribers
  • School libraries: 26 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 17 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 7 subscribers

Encyclopaedia Britannica

  • Public libraries: 80 subscribers
  • School libraries: 35 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 32 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 7 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 4 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 5 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 7 subscribers

Factiva

  • Public libraries: 27 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 25 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 7 subscribers

Grolier

  • Public libraries: 5 subscribers
  • School libraries: 13 subscribers

Health & Wellness Resource Centre

  • Public libraries: 118 subscribers
  • School libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 6 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 5 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 13 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 5 subscribers

Informit (various)

  • Special libraries: 6 subscribers

InfoTrac

  • Tertiary libraries: 11 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 2 subscribers

Lexis/Nexis

  • Special libraries: 11 subscribers

Literature Resource Centre

  • Public libraries: 9 subscribers

MacquarieNet

  • Public libraries: 11 subscribers
  • School libraries: 45 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 8 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 27 subscribers
  • National/State/Territory libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 9 subscribers

Magpies

  • Public libraries: 5 subscribers
  • School libraries: 6 subscribers

NewsBank

  • Public libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 4 subscribers

Newstext

  • School libraries: 6 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 3 subscribers

Oxford English Dictionary

  • Public libraries: 2 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 25 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 5 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type libraries: 3 subscribers

Oxford Reference Online

  • Public libraries: 9 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 46 subscribers
  • Special libraries: 6 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 5 subscribers

Science Resource Centre

  • Public libraries: 7 subscribers

SCIS

  • School libraries: 5 subscribers

Standards Australia

  • Public libraries: 12 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 5 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 2 subscribers

Weblinks

  • School libraries: 8 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 2 subscribers

WebsterWorld

  • Public libraries: 15 subscribers
  • School libraries: 10 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 2 subscribers

Who�s Who in Australia

  • Special libraries: 2 subscribers

World Book

  • Public libraries: 23 subscribers
  • School libraries: 56 subscribers
  • Tertiary libraries: 3 subscribers
  • Joint use libraries: 4 subscribers
  • Other or unknown type of library: 7 subscribers

Affordability of subscriptions

Over 700 respondents indicated an interest in subscribing to products through a national licensing system.  Of those not interested, the majority were school libraries (30), some of which are constrained by factors other than the licence cost itself (lack of other infrastructure). One indicated that needs are fully met by existing free Internet resources and search engines

Preferences for national licensing

Respondents indicated their support for the three nominated product groups.  The overall result showed significantly less support for health resources than for general reference or news and current affairs resources.

General reference:

  • Top priority for 255 (33%) respondents
  • Second priority for 219 (26%) respondents
  • Third priority for 77 (10%) respondents
  • Lesser priority for 96 (13%) respondents
  • 54 (7%) respondents not interested

News and current affairs:

  • Top priority for 328 (43%) respondents
  • Second priority for 185 (24%) respondents
  • Third priority for 53 (7%) respondents
  • Lesser priority for 89 (12%) respondents
  • 48 (6%) respondents not interested

Health:

  • Top priority for 55 (7%) respondents
  • Second priority for 106 (14%) respondents
  • Third priority for 179 (23%) respondents
  • Lesser priority for 140 (18%) respondents
  • 176 (23%) respondents not interested

Not all libraries assigned priorities to all resources, and the same priority was given to more than one type of resource by some respondents.

The high priority products (ranked 1 or 2) identified by each library sector, with the % of respondents in that sector identifying this as their top priority, re noted below.

School libraries:

  • General reference
    79% (53% ranked this as Top Priority)

Public libraries:

  • News and current affairs
    83% (60% ranked this as Top Priority)

Special libraries:

  • News and current affairs
    60% (47% ranked this as Top Priority)

Tertiary libraries:

  • News and current affairs
    67% (53% ranked this as Top Priority)

Joint use libraries:

  • News and Current Affairs
    73% (35% ranked this as Top Priority)

National/State/Territory libraries:

  • News and current affairs
    86% (71% ranked this as Top Priority)

Other libraries or unknown sector:

  • General reference
    51% (22% ranked this as Top Priority)

Other resources

The survey also asked if respondents could identify any other products which they regard as very important for their libraries

The variety of responses to this question was very broad. There were numerous requests for multidisciplinary resources, and many for subject-specific resources.  There was some interest expressed in e-books, and for bibliographic databases. Other resource types mentioned included (but is not limited to):  Car manuals, biography, PC-based training packages, family history, a children's encyclopaedia, audio books, scientific / environmental resources for schoolchildren, Standards.

Several respondents provided answers which indicate that access to electronic resources is overshadowed by the need for more basic resources and infrastructure:

"We have so many power cuts where we are that paper reference books are very essential"  (Western Australian school library)

"Working computers � and the money to resource with coloured printing and quality paper" (Queensland school library)

"invest in more personnel, especially technical support" (South Australian school library)

"Books - the children need to be able to take information home in "hard copy" form as many do not have access to electronic material out of school hours" (Victorian school library)

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