JISC Collections staff have spent the last week speaking to e-book publishers and aggregators about the four PDA models that David Kay outlined in his post on 8^th January 2013 (below). We were hoping to find out the view from their side about PDA and working with consortia, and to learn some of the realities of how such a set-up could operate, in order to build this into the guidelines for institutions that the EBASS25 project will provide.

We spoke to small, specialist publishers such as Woodhouse; as well as larger players such as Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. On the aggregator side we spoke to Ebrary and 123Doc. All-in-all we spoke to nine different companies, giving us a representative cross-section of the academic e-book marketplace.

We asked them which of the models they found most appealing, and for details of any  PDA models they already use. We also wanted to know how they would handle the day-to-day practicalities of a consortium agreement (in terms of managing orders, invoicing and providing usage statistics, for example.)

All had interesting things to say about the four models, and about their view of e-books in general, and all were happy to help with our research.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Evidence-Based Selection proved popular with the publishers, as it would be relatively straightforward to implement, and guarantees them some upfront payment. Although some pointed to the comparative fairness of the PDA models (in that libraries are paying only for content that is actually being used), there was a general feeling that the mechanics involve a fair amount of work on the publisher’s or aggregator’s part, with no guarantee of return. It was also felt that these models can potentially provide a great deal of content for free before payment triggers are reached, and that some degree of mediation by the library is necessary to control acquisition and spending. Although the EBS model was so popular, it was interesting to learn that only two of the organisations we spoke to currently offer it.

The potential threat posed by e-books to print sales is still a commonly expressed concern, and any consortial agreement that involves shared copies is seen to magnify this. There is also the question of how a single copy shared between several institutions affects the royalty payment paid to authors: not a problem that might occur to  those on the library side perhaps, but clearly a real issue to publishers that can contribute to a general wariness surrounding this sort of agreement.

It should be said, however, that although their opinions varied quite considerably, one thing all our interviewees shared was an enthusiasm for the project, and a willingness to work with institutions in order to be part of any agreements that may come of it.

The companies we interviewed were:

• 123Doc
• Cambridge University Press
• Cengage Learning
• Ebrary
• Elsevier
• Hodder Education
• Palgrave
• Taylor & Francis
• Woodhouse

Full details of all their responses will be published in our final report.

Ben Taplin – Licensing Manager, JISC Collections

The Oxford English Dictionary describes an expert as ‘someone who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area’. The structure of the E-BASS25 project is dependent on experts for its success. This is clearly stated within the application made to JISC. ‘Within an M25 Consortium project management framework, work will be carried out by a designated lead expert…and by other associate experts…leading specific workpackages’.

Experts, like talented footballers, are much in demand. Their expertise is well known in the community and their involvement in projects such as those funded by JISC can enhance reputations and broaden visibility.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde penned the following well know sentence. “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”  Well, we at E-BASS25 have ‘lost’ three of our experts since the project began in August 2012. We are delighted for the individuals concerned: Anna Grigson moving from Royal Holloway to the post of Head of Collection Services Group at LSE Library; Anna Vernon from JISC Collections to become Licensing and Copyright Assurance Manager at the British Library and Rupert Williams soon to move from the Science Museum to take up a new post as Head of Library Services at UCL’s new international branch campus in Doha, Qatar.

There is no transfer window or deadline. We are in an open market. The window, already closing as the cold spell snaps, is the project deadline date, kindly extended until the end of February by JISC. Fortunately, the migrating experts have delivered much to the project and we have been able to act quickly with our partners to recruit new expertise.

There is no doubt that qualities of agility and flexibility are vital skills for project managers to have. They, their project teams and funders have to move quickly to fill gaps, reprioritise and provide cover. The rewarding thing is that in the library and information community, there is not only strength in depth and lots of expertise; there is also an almost innate willingness to adapt and engage with interesting projects such as E-BASS25.

Looking back at the E-BASS25 risk register, I see the following entry which has some relevance to the issue described above and where probability and severity are marked as low.

A lesson to learn for a short-term project is not to underestimate the attraction of rare birds of passage and be alert to this risk.

John Tuck – 24th January 2013

The following draft document is intended to outline the most prominent models available for patron-driven acquisition of e-books within a consortium of libraries.  This document is very much in draft format and we welcome comments from all interested parties.

 Models

1. 1.    PDA Purchase

• The library sets up a PDA agreement with a supplier to make a range of e-books available to users

Typically, libraries create a profile based on a set of parameters (such as subject, date of publication, publisher, price, language, readership level etc.), and the suppliers makes all e-books matching these criteria available to users. Alternatively, library staff may select a publisher’s collection, or a list of individual titles.

• Once the titles have been selected, the library makes the content visible and discoverable to users.

Libraries may import MARC records into the catalogue and/or by activate resources in the link resolver so that they are visible in the library’s discovery system. Typically the e-books are presented in the catalogue in the same way as pre-purchased or subscribed e-books, so to the user they simply appear to be part of the library collection, even though the library has not purchased them

• Users have full access to the e-books. Limited usage is allowed without charge, but if usage of a particular book passes a threshold level, a payment is triggered and the book is automatically purchased by the library.

Different suppliers may use different criteria and set different levels to define the purchase threshold. Typically, there are two elements which determine the threshold:

• The extent of use which counts as a ‘significant use’. Typically, viewing a book for just a few minutes or viewing a small number of pages does not counts as a significant use and does not trigger payment. Viewing for more than few minutes, or any downloading or printing from the book is counted as a significant use.
• The number of significant uses before purchase is triggered. Typically, the first significant use is free, but a second significant use triggers a purchase.

So for example:

• User 1 views two pages of a book. This does not count as a significant use.
• User 2 views the book for ten minutes, and prints two pages. This does count as a significant use, but at this stage no payment is triggered.
• User 3 views the book for one minute. This does not count as a significant use.
• User 4 downloads a chapter of the book. This counts as a second significant use, and at this point the book is automatically purchased and payment is made by the library.
• Once purchased, the e-book becomes permanently available to all library users, typically with the same limits on the maximum number of users / uses that would apply if the book were purchased under a traditional model.
• If the library decides to end the PDA agreement, access to any books which have not been purchased is withdrawn, and the library removes records for these books from the catalogue.

In this model, the library typically has control over a limited number of the settings.

• The library may decide whether or not to require the user to ‘click to continue reading’ beyond the significant use threshold, alerting them that the book will be purchased and a charge incurred by the library.
• The library may be able to limit the maximum significant use per user per day.

The library does not normally control the number of significant uses which triggers a purchase, which is set by the supplier.

Examples

• Arizona University Libraries (closed consortium)
• Ontario Council of University libraries (2010 pilot, closed consortium)
• CTW Library Consortium, Connecticut (2010 pilot, closed consortium)

2.    PDA Rental (or PDA short-term-loan)

• The library sets up a PDA agreement with a supplier to make a range of e-books available to users

Typically, libraries create a profile based on a set of parameters (such as subject, date of publication, publisher, price, language, readership level etc.), and the suppliers makes all e-books matching these criteria available to users. Alternatively, library staff may select a publisher’s collection, or a list of individual titles.

• Once the titles have been selected, the library makes the content visible and discoverable to users.

Libraries may import MARC records into the catalogue and/or by activate resources in the link resolver so that they are visible in the library’s discovery system. Typically the e-books are presented in the catalogue in the same way as pre-purchased or subscribed e-books, so to the user they simply appear to be part of the library collection, even though the library has not purchased them

• Users have full access to the e-books. Limited usage is allowed without charge, provided that it falls below the threshold of ‘significant use’.

Different suppliers may use different criteria and set different levels to define ‘significant use’. Typically, viewing a book for just a few minutes or viewing a small number of pages does not count as a significant use. Viewing for more than few minutes, or any downloading or printing from the book is counted as a significant use and triggers a payment.

•  If a user continues to use a book beyond the threshold of ‘significant use’, a rental or short-term loan is triggered:
  • The book is temporarily ‘loaned’ to the user, and for the duration of the loan period that user can make full use of it without triggering any further fees.
  • The library pays a fee for the loan, typically a percentage of the full list price
  • The fee depends on the duration of the short-term loan. For example, if the user has access to the e-book for just one day, the library pays 10% of the list price, but if the user gets access for seven days, the library may pay 25% of the list price.
• Further significant use triggers further loans and payments. So if a book is used a second time, or by a second user, a second short-term loan is triggered and a second fee is payable.
• After a given number of loans, the next significant use triggers an automatic purchase and the library pays the full list price of the book.

Once purchased, the book becomes part of the library’s collection and is permanently available to all library users, typically with the same limits on the maximum number of users / uses that would apply if the book were purchased under a traditional model.

• If the library decides to end the PDA agreement, access to any books which have not been purchased is withdrawn, and the library removes records for these books from the catalogue.

In this model, the library typically has control over several of the settings.

• The library may decide whether or not to require the user to ‘click to continue reading’ beyond the significant use threshold, alerting them that a short-term loan or purchase will be triggered and a charge incurred by the library.
• The library may decide whether or not to require approval (mediation) from a librarian before the user is able to continue reading beyond the significant use threshold. Depending on the model, it may be possible to apply mediation to all requests that trigger a payment, or only to use that triggers a purchase, or only to use that triggers a payment over a certain amount.
• The library may be able to limit the maximum significant use per user per day, for example by limiting the number of short-term loans per user.
• The duration of the short-term loan can be chosen by the library, from a range of options, giving the library some control over the size of the fee payable for each short-term loan.
• The number of loans made before a purchase is triggered can be chosen by the library, giving the library some control over the point at which usage is considered sufficient to warrant purchase of the e-book.

Examples

• Orbis Cascade (2010 pilot now regular service, closed consortium)
• Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (2010 pilot, closed consortium)
• Western New York Library Resources Council (2012), Boston Library Consortium (2012)
• No known UK consortial examples

3.    PDA Usage

• The library sets up a PDA agreement with a supplier to make a range of e-books available to users

Typically, libraries create a profile based on a set of parameters (such as subject, date of publication, publisher, price, language, readership level etc.), and the suppliers makes all e-books matching these criteria available to users. Alternatively, library staff may select a publisher’s collection, or a list of individual titles.

• Once the titles have been selected, the library makes the content visible and discoverable to users.

Libraries may import MARC records into the catalogue and/or by activate resources in the link resolver so that they are visible in the library’s discovery system. Typically the e-books are presented in the catalogue in the same way as pre-purchased or subscribed e-books, so to the user they simply appear to be part of the library collection, even though the library has not purchased them

• Users have full access to the e-books. Each significant use of a book triggers a charge to the library.

Different suppliers may use different criteria and set different levels to define ‘significant use’. In some models, viewing a book for a few minutes may be free, but viewing for more than few minutes, or any downloading or printing may be counted as a significant use and trigger a payment, for example 10% of the list price. In some models, any use may trigger a micro-payment, for example a cost per page viewed.

• If the total charges payable for the book reach a given level, then the book is deemed purchased and becomes a permanent part of the library’s collection.

In some models, the purchase threshold may be the same as the list price of the book, but in other models it may be greater than the list price.

• If the library decides to end the PDA agreement, access to any books which have not been purchased is withdrawn, and the library removes records for these books from the catalogue.

The library may have the option to pay an extra fee to purchase books which have seen high usage but have not quite reached the purchase threshold.

Examples

• JISC e-books for FE (closed consortium)
• JISC Collections 123 e-books deal (open consortium offer)
• York / Springer (non-consortial)
• No known US examples

1. 4.      Evidence-Based Selection

• The library sets up a PDA agreement with a publisher to make a range of e-books available to users for a defined period.

This model is currently only available directly from publishers. Typically, libraries select one or more of the publishers’ collections to be made available for a year.

• The library pays a fee upfront.

The fee is typically greater than the cost of subscribing to the collection, but less than the cost of purchasing the collection. This fee will eventually be used to purchase books, but no titles are selected at this stage.

• The library makes the content visible and discoverable to users.

Libraries may import MARC records into the catalogue and/or by activate resources in the link resolver so that they are visible in the library’s discovery system. Typically the e-books are presented in the catalogue in the same way as pre-purchased or subscribed e-books, so to the user they simply appear to be part of the library collection, even though the library has not purchased them

• Users have full access to the e-books. Any usage during the year is recorded.
• At the end of the year, librarians review the ‘evidence’ of usage statistics and select the books they wish to own as part of the library’s collection. The library can select titles up to the value of the fee originally paid at the start of the year, and each title is typically charged at list price.
• If the library decides not to continue with the agreement, access to books not purchased is withdrawn and the records removed from the library catalogue.
• Alternatively, if the library decides to continue with the agreement, another fee is paid and users continue to have access to the full range of books for a further year. At the end of the second year, a second batch of books may be selected for purchase, and so on.

Examples

• No known consortial examples (yet)
• Royal Holloway (2012, non-consortial)
• Open University (2010?) and others in UK

David Kay, Sero Consulting

The 26^th November EBASS25 workshop for M25 members was attended by 30 representatives from 19 institutions, with a number of others on the reserve list. Clearly we need to go for a larger venue for the concluding event in Monday 4^th February!

After a project update from John Tuck (RHUL and M25 Chair) and Dominic Tate (EBASS25 project manager), the meeting got down to the business of considering three broad types of e-Book acquisition models and how they might apply in a consortium setting such as M25 (or subgroups thereof).

The Models

Anna Grigson (formerly RHUL, now of LSE) introduced her EBASS25 study of consortium arrangements existing elsewhere. The study, which is shortly to be published by the project, identifies four models:

• Purchase
• Rental (aka short-loan)
• Usage-based
• Evidence-based

These models were then discussed one by one in small groups, with rental and usage-based (which have many similarities) being combined due to time constraints. This generated feedback and clarification questions in four areas:

In considering the models, delegates were encouraged to think about the underlying drivers and motivations both for libraries and for suppliers that might have a strong bearing on the model and the associated licensing, pricing and purchase triggers:

• Access – Who will access the resources and where?
• Value – Why would a library or a supplier adopt an approach?

The models discussed were as follows:

PDA Model 1 – Purchase – illustrated by an Arizona consortium

Three institutions are in this consortium and collectively they pay 2.5 times the standard price for each book purchased (if 6 were in the consortium the multiplier would be 5 times the standard price, etc).

Users can see a wide selection of e-books and three uses convert an e-book into a purchased title. In the case of the Arizona consortium they split the cost 40% / 40% / 20% (based on the relative size of the 3 institutions). The M25 consortium (or a sub-set of it) could split the costs according to such as JISC Band or FTE.

Key metrics in this model are

• the “multiplier price” for the consortium purchase
• the number of “uses” which trigger a purchase
• the mechanism for redistributing the costs across the consortium

PDA Model – Usage based – used by JISC Collections for ‘e-Books for FE’

Users have access to a wide collection of books, and a small payment is made for each use of each e-book. A cap is set, and when these “micro payments” reach that cap, they flip to the title becoming purchased with no further payment.

In the FE trail, the usage was so evenly spread that not many titles flipped to purchase. However, it did provide wide access to a collection and use was made across all the titles. The project did not require distribution of the costs  – but they could be redistributed on actual usage, requiring some upfront payment into a fund to kick it off.

Key metrics in this model are

• the “micro payment charges” for each use
• the “cap” which flips a book to “purchased” status
• the mechanism for redistributing the costs (e.g. JISC banding)

PDA Model – Evidence-based

This is the sort of model that publishers like Elsevier and Springer have used whereby a collection is made available to an institution (or consortium) for a period such as a year for a small fixed lease fee. Based on the actual usage (or on any basis they see fit), they make their purchase decisions.

The consortium breadth may be attractive to a publisher with a large collection. Perhaps one could negotiate a discounted fee for the rental period – but there is not much leverage for further discounts for the consortium unless based on the number of institutions buying a particular book. However, the model is low risk and each member of the consortium has autonomy to make its own purchase decisions.

The metrics in this model are

• the rental fee for the entire collection
• the subsequent purchase price of books

Conclusions

We concluded the workshop with a show of hands to establish a ‘gut response’ to two headline questions that would help direct ongoing project efforts.

My preferred PDA model would be

• Purchase                    2
• Usage-based              2
• Evidence-based        26

My collection focus would be

• Breadth – Offer a broad popular selection          4
• Depth – Tailor subject specialist selections       12
• Depth – Open up a long tail of titles to choice    14

Next Steps for the project, leading to the February event

The workshop highlighted the value of the following steps

• The team will devise a short survey to capture responses across M25 members on motivations, options and associated issues, building on the concluding questions highlighted above
• The project will produce a short guidance paper covering institutional motivations and access requirements that should be weighed against any PDA option and the associated terms
• The University of Kingston will lead the supporting work package on the systems and management implications of offering PDA options.

E-BASS25 has produced light-touch project documentation including a project plan, which is formulated of the breakdown of the work packages and a schedule of activities:

E-BASS25  Work Package Breakdown

Within an M25 Consortium project management framework, work will be carried out by a designated lead expert, Anna Grigson (Royal Holloway University of London) and by other associate experts, Rupert Williams (ScienceMuseum), Helen Guile (KingstonUniversity) and Anna Vernon (JISC Collections), leading specific work packages (for details see below). As consultants, David Kay and Owen Stephens (SERO Consulting Limited) will bring their expertise in information and library provision to specific pieces of work, as well as across the whole spectrum of the project, starting with an opening workshop from the institutional perspective through to a final end of project dissemination workshop.

 1.   Project Management and Evaluation

This work package will comprise the managing and monitoring of progress of the project in line with the project plan, including addressing issues and risks, as well as coordinating communication, dissemination and evaluation. The project manager will ensure that the various strands of the project run to schedule and the Project Board is provided with the reports and documentation it requires, and that all agreed project deliverables are produced and disseminated as required.

Deliverables: Project plan; Monitoring procedures and measurement against success criteria; Communications plan; Risk register; Evaluation plan and report; Final report; Project evaluation report.

2.  E-book Landscape and Context Review

This work package will review the current range of e-book business models, including PDA, paying specific attention to business models applicable to and/or previously used by consortia. It will  take into account the impact of the wider e-book landscape on library e-book provision, including digitization (e.g. Google Books and Hathi Trust), emerging technology trends (e.g. mobile readers) and developments in the publishing industry (e.g. Amazon and Apple). As part of the work, it will also consider whether PDA is a long-term sustainable model. The work package will be led by Anna Grigson (Royal Holloway), working with the associate experts and consultants, and will involve desk research, discussions with e-book suppliers and digitisation experts (both academics and practitioners), and use case studies of institutions and consortia who have used the PDA model.

Deliverables: Report including PDA use case studies, exemplars and trends analysis.

 3.  Business Requirements Specification

Led by Associate Expert, Rupert Williams (ScienceMuseum), this work package will draw on the use case studies reviewed in WP2 to develop a specification of the business requirements of a consortial model for PDA. It will address key issues such as value for money and financial sustainability, financial management (e.g. equitable distribution of costs between members), content selection (e.g. meeting diverse content needs of consortia members) and exit strategies.

Deliverables: Business requirements specification document.

4.  Business Model Specification

Led by Associate Expert, Anna Vernon (JISC Collections), supported by Lorraine Estelle and Hugh Look, this work package will engage with suppliers of patron-driven e-books including aggregators and publishers to develop a PDA model (or models) which meets the business requirements identified in WP3. This will cover a range of suppliers including aggregators and publishers, including specialist publishers relevant to specialist HE institutions and the museum sector. It will also address minimum thresholds of investment and commitment required from consortia entering into a PDA supply deal with suppliers.

Deliverables: Business model specification document, including costings.

5.  Procurement Guidelines

Led by Amy Warner (Royal Holloway), this work package will engage with procurement professionals from university purchasing consortia (e.g. SUPC, LUPC) and JISC Collections to identify the most efficient procurement routes for setting up a consortia e-books agreement, including any options to the advantage of existing framework agreements such as the Joint Consortia Book Agreement. It will not seek to provide legal advice, but will identify issues to be addressed by consortia when contracting for an e-book agreement, and options available toUKconsortia.

Deliverables: Guidelines on procurement options.

6.  Systems Integration Guidelines

This workpackage will identify the technical issues to be addressed in implementing a consortial PDA agreement, and how library systems can be exploited to maximise the staff time efficiency savings that PDA offers. It will develop guidelines on how PDA can be most effectively managed by both traditional LMS within member institutions and by emerging ‘above campus’ systems such as KB+ and webscale discovery systems. The workpackage, carried out by the consultant guided by Associate Expert, Helen Guile (KingstonUniversity), will involve in-depth discussions with LMS providers, publishers and systems / technical services librarians.

Deliverables: Report and recommendations.

7.  Dissemination Activities

The work will be coordinated by a project officer reporting to Amy Warner. Outputs will include the setting up and regular updating of a web page and blog. Members of the project team will contribute to relevant JISC events and will provide at least one article and one presentation as part of the project. During the project, specific reports and findings will be channelled into the JISC Library Systems Synthesis project. SERO Consulting will facilitate an end of project dissemination workshop which will engage the advice and input of experts across theUKsector. From this workshop, a framework will be developed to present the combined reports on the web in easily navigable form, possibly based on the Open Bibliographic Data Guide.

Deliverables: Reports and communications outlined in the Communications Plan and a strategic framework to present project outputs to the wider community.

8.  Sustainability Planning and Project Exit Strategy

It is the intention that the toolkit outputs of the Project will be embedded within and disseminated through guidance provided by purchasing consortia, managing agents and library consortia.  The combined outputs will be presented via a strategic web-based framework. All document masters will be deposited into a JISC agreed repository in appropriate format.  It will be the role and remit of established consortia such as the M25 Consortium and MLAG to ensure that the guidance and toolkit remain relevant to their members and user communities.

Schedule of Activities for E-BASS25

On Friday 13th July John Tuck, Helen Guile and I went to Birmingham to attend the Library Systems Programme start-up meeting.  This provided a great opportunity to meet each other, our JISC Programme Manager Ben Showers and representatives from all the other funded projects in this strand, as well as representatives from key individuals carrying out related work in this important and rapidly-changing area of library development.

Over the last few days we have been reflecting on what we want to achieve from our work on E-BASS25 and have arrived at the following desired outcomes:

• We will have a clear idea of the current e-books and more specifically the patron-driven acquisition (PDA) landscape in the UK
• We will know what issues consortia face when seeking to procure e-books at present
• Members of the M25 Consortium and the wider community of academic and research libraries will have much clearer guidance on the challenges relating to the consortial acquisition of e-books using a patron-driven model and on how to embark upon consortial acquisition
• The Project Team will have worked together to answer and address many of the questions raised by institutions and consortia about acquiring e-books.
• We will have produced a wide range of supporting materials in the form of reports, briefing papers and toolkits and they will be available to those who need them.

At the end of the project we will conduct an evaluation, written up as a project document.  This will chart our progress against a range of success criteria, including:

• Delivery of project outputs/deliverables in line with project plan and budget
• Dissemination of outputs in line with communications plan
• Contributions to JISC events and related JISC calls, as per project plan
• Contributions to wider initiatives such as KB+; take up and dissemination by stakeholders of toolkit/guidelines.

As part of the programme of work we will be seeking views from the community as to what other outcomes would be desirable.  However, if you already have further ideas about what you’d like to see from E-BASS25 then please leave a comment or contact me by email.

Dominic Tate – Project Manager

Welcome!  This is the project blog for E-BASS25 ( E-Book Aquisition as a Shared Service in M25).  Firstly, many thanks to JISC for funding this project, which I am sure will provide some really valuable findings and advice on the patron-driven purchasing of e-books on a consortium basis.

E-BASS25 is a project led by Royal Holloway, University of London (on behalf of the M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries), with partners at Kingston University, JISC Collections and the Science Museum (on behalf of the Museum Librarians and Archivists Group).  In addition, we are looking forward to working with SCONUL, LUPC, SUPC, Sero Consulting and the University of Surrey.

The project seeks to define practical guidelines and tools which will enable libraries to work together with providers and purchasing consortia to deliver the best possible return on investment and the highest level of efficiency in this priority area of library provision.

As e-books continue to develop as an important format and resource in libraries for students and researchers, it has become increasingly important to define best practice and cost-effectiveness in managing their acquisition and delivery in a library context.  This project focuses on the purchasing of e-books on a consortium basis and will deliver considerable benefits in terms of engagement with libraries, the dissemination of guidelines around e-book acquisition and a more coordinated approach across the various groups involved.

The project has ambitious aims to shape policies and guidelines that will facilitate easy and cost-effective processes around patron-driven e-book acquisition within library consortia.

More updates on this project, including the finalized project plan will follow soon and this blog will be a key source of information as the project progresses, so watch this space!

Dominic Tate – Project Manager, E-BASS25