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This international report focuses particularly on the
database licensing practices of research libraries with data
presented separately for legal, corporate, higher education
and other libraries. The study presents up to date data
on database spending broken out by type of information vehicle
(eBook, Journals Database, Other Periodicals Database,
Directory, etc.) and by subject matter (i.e. legal, medical,
business, etc.).
The report looks closely at how libraries organize their
database procurement and processing bureaucracy, pinpointing
the number of positions devoted to digital information, and
staff time spent on tasks such as procurement and invoice
processing. The report is particularly rich in data
about negotiations with vendors, presenting data separately
for efforts to negotiate various issues such as interlibrary
loan provisions, access to archives in the event of
cancellation, timing of payments, price increases, provisions
for credits in the event of downtime, extent of hard copy
printouts allowed, and much more.
Among other issues covered: database renewal intentions,
testing of new databases, view of price increases, use of open
access resources, spending on “by the slice”
electronic info in lieu of subscriptions, relations with
consortia, the impact of mobile computing on electronic info
use in the library, use of legal help in contracts, data on
legal disputes with publishers and trends in overall database
use.
Just a few of this 147 page report’s many findings
are that:
• The libraries in the sample
spent a mean of $917,897 on database licenses in 2013.
Spending by libraries in the sample on databases rose
considerably in 2014 to a mean of $997,709, or an annual
increase of approximately 8.7%.
• The mean number of digital
information licenses maintained by the libraries in the sample
in 2013 was a mean of 68.6 with a median of 30; the range was
0 to 320.
• 25.3% of the libraries sample
had tried to negotiate over the extent of hard copy printouts
allowed.
• College and university
libraries had the most success in negotiating
price
reductions when data shows declining use of a database;
8.33% of them said that they were often successful and another
37.5% were successful occasionally in negotiating price
reductions in these circumstances.
• The survey participants used
lawyers from within or outside of their organizations for
contract review or disputes for a mean of only 18.58 hours in
the past year.
