2016 Charleston Library Conference

In 2014, Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC), a consortium of seven libraries in the Twin Cities, tasked its Collection Development Committee with starting concerted efforts to cooperatively acquire ebooks for the consortium. To that end, the group developed a philosophy and a set of purchasing and renewal review guidelines that have so far proven very helpful to fairly and fully evaluate possible purchases and make efficient purchasing decisions. The group conducted considerable research on other consortium models, as well as the myriad purchase model options available from various vendors.

Our proposed presentation would detail our efforts so that other libraries can learn from our research as well as consider using our selection and evaluation model for their own library or consortium. While we would speak to the consortium-specific aspects of ebook acquisition, we would also talk at some length about factors that are relevant for both consortia and individual libraries. Outcomes of this project included detailed checklists for acquiring new ebook packages and evaluating existing ones, which we would describe and make available to other libraries.

The four presenters would cover the goals of our project, as charged from our consortium board, challenges we faced adapting our processes from the print to the electronic realm, the many vendor models that we evaluated, and the criteria we developed to make purchasing decisions. We will also cover how we aligned our consortium members in order to purchase ebooks cooperatively, and offer advice to others on how to handle this process with colleagues at their library or consortium.