2016 Charleston Library Conference

Collections librarians receive requests for specialized resources that may require use of passwords or other mediated access, local hosting, or special software. Sometimes (although not always) these resources are used in a business or industry setting, and their subscription and licensing process does not follow typical academic library acquisitions patterns. Librarians may also receive requests for raw data from a subscribed resource. How do librarians respond? How do vendors make decisions about which products to bring to the academic library market? At this session two librarians will share perspectives on these challenges and ways they accommodate these requests, and a vendor representative will provide insight into the product development decision-making process, including how providers decide which products will have licenses or access models typically used by academic libraries, and which will be offered via other models. Librarians wanting to find ways to respond to these kinds of user requests will have the opportunity to learn from the presenters and also to share their practices during Q&A. Vendor representative attendees are also welcome to share how companies make decisions about their offerings to various markets as well as to specialized user requests for access to their data. Collectively, we will consider how to “roll with the times” and be responsive to user needs.