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Electronic Resources Australia: A New Era for Australian Library e-Resource Subscriptions

Loui Seslja
Delegates at the 4th National Licensing Forum, 9 May 2007

The 4th National Licensing Forum held at the National Library on 9 May was a cause for celebration!

Delegates from the key Australian library sectoral representatives met to discuss the outcomes of the 2006–2007 National Licensing Proposal tender process and welcome Electronic Resources Australia (ERA).

The National Licensing Proposal Reference Group, led since October 2005 by Julie Rae (VICLINK/Gulliver), has responded to the results of the 2005 product survey, and Australian libraries now have a panel of nine full-text electronic subscription resources in the areas of ‘general reference’, ‘Australian news and business information’ and ‘health information’ to consider. It is anticipated that the first subscriptions with EBSCO Publishing, Forward Learning Pty Ltd (World Book), Oxford University Press, ProQuest-CSA and Thomson Gale will commence in October 2007.

In a letter issued on 7 July, Jan Fullerton and Julie Rae announced that:

The collaborative purchasing power of ERA will enable more Australian libraries to afford subscriptions to these resources. By working together, ERA offers all Australian librarians an opportunity to benefit from their collective experiences in licensing and delivery of electronic services.

ERA offers a national approach to e-resource subscriptions, and most importantly will be managed by and for all Australian libraries for their users. The National Licensing Proposal Reference Group has now dissolved and has been replaced with an interim ERA Executive Committee, chaired by Roxanne Missingham and Geoff Strempel.

For more information, including answers to frequently asked questions, visit the ERA website at http://era.nla.gov.au/, email era@nla.gov.au or telephone 1800 182 937 (toll-free within Australia).

Erica Ryan
Resource Sharing Division

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