2016 Charleston Library Conference

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.

The interactive session will involve the audience through discussions about their own collection assessment challenges and triumphs. Attendees will leave with new ideas, questions to consider, and practical tools to help experiment with unbundling their own "big deals."

This session was co-authored by Alie Visser, Research & Instructional Services Librarian, Western University, who was unable to attend the conference.