Project Plan – E-BASS25

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