ALCTS E-Forum: The Future of the Big Deal

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

ALCTS E-Forum: The Future of the Big Deal
From: ALCTS-CE Announce <alcts.ce.announce@gmail.com>

**Please excuse cross postings**

The Future of the Big Deal

October 18-19, 2011

Hosted by Rebecca Kemp and Rob Van Rennes

Please join us for an e-forum discussion. It's free and open to 
everyone! Registration information is at the end of the message.

Each day, sessions begin and end at:

Pacific: 7am, 3pm
Mountain: 8am, 2pm
Central: 9am, 5pm
Eastern: 10am, 6pm

The economic downturn has forced many libraries to take a hard 
look at their 'Big Deal; packages and reconsider whether it makes 
sense to continue with this type of purchasing model.  Some have 
advocated for ending the large publisher packages as a 
cost-savings measure while others have argued that the vast 
amounts of content and the predictability of set pricing is too 
important to end. In this e-forum we hope to foster the debate on 
the pros and cons of the Big Deal in an effort to help 
familiarize librarians with the issues as they make their own 
assessments on the continuation of their publisher packages.

Please join us for what we hope is a lively discussion on this 
current hot topic.

Topics will include:

*The advantages and disadvantages of current library Big Deal 
packages.

*The case for maintaining a Big Deal if certain modifications or 
improvements can be made.

*Information librarians should possess before negotiating with 
publishers.

*Considerations librarians should be mindful of when 
contemplating ending publisher packages.

*The potential difficulties in extracting your institution from a 
Big Deal.

*Alternative business models that could replace the Big Deal.

*Pay-per-view access to non-subscribed titles: a viable 
alternative to the Big Deal?

*Advice on canceling a Big Deal and unexpected consequences.

*The impact of canceling on faculty and other users.

Rebecca Kemp is the E-Resources Acquisitions Librarian for 
University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill, and she was previously the Serials Coordinator Librarian at 
University of North Carolina Wilmington from 2004-2009.  Her 
current responsibilities include reviewing e-resource licenses 
and managing e-resource acquisitions workflows.  Rebecca has 
served on state and national committees that provide continuing 
education in the field of e-resource and serials librarianship, 
and she has spoken at several venues, including the North 
Carolina Serials Conference and the American Library Association 
Annual Conference, about various aspects of e-resource 
management, including MARC record services, e-resource usage 
statistics, and the presentation of e-resources in online 
catalogs.

Rob Van Rennes is an Acquisitions Librarian at the University of 
Iowa where he oversees the Electronic Resources staff.  He is 
currently serving as the chair of the ALCTS CRS Acquisitions 
Committee and is actively involved with the North American 
Serials Interest Group (NASIG).  Rob holds Bachelor degrees in 
History and German from the University of Northern Iowa and a MA 
in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa.

*What is an e-forum?*

An ALCTS e-forum provides an opportunity for librarians to 
discuss matters of interest, led by a moderator, through the 
e-forum discussion list. The e-forum discussion list works like 
an email listserv: register your email address with the list, and 
then you will receive messages and communicate with other 
participants through an email discussion. Most e-forums last two 
to three days. Registration is necessary to participate, but it's 
free. See a list of upcoming e-forums at: 
http://bit.ly/upcomingeforum.

To register:

Instructions for registration are available at: 
http://bit.ly/eforuminfo. Once you have registered for one 
e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to 
leave the email list. Participation is free and open to anyone.

Posted on behalf of the ALCTS Continuing Education Committee