Pricing and Acquisitions Policies for Electronic Resources: Is the Market Stable Enough to Establish Local Standards?
SUMMARY Librarians establish pricing policies for traditional acquisitions to systematize what can be an unpredictable process. This article discusses whether the electronic resource market is currently stable enough for librarians to apply similar policies to their electronic acquisitions. It also examines the history and current state of electronic resource pricing, and relates electronic resource pricing policy preferences as articulated by professionals who work closely with electronic resource acquisitions.
Qualitative Analysis of Association of Research Libraries' E‐Metrics Participant Feedback about the Evolution of Measures for Networked Electronic Resources
The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) E‐Metrics Project is an ongoing effort to develop new measures that describe and measure networked electronic resources and also to underscore the need for measuring the value of such resources. This article presents results from an ongoing iterative qualitative study with the following goals: (a) to understand ARL libraries’ needs for evaluating electronic resources; (b) to refine proposed definitions for describing and measuring electronic resources; (c) to institutionalize data collection for ongoing, annual reporting purposes; and (d) to develop reliable indicators for summative evaluation of electronic resources. Qualitative data collected from participants attending the initial meeting to develop the E‐Metrics Project in 2000 are analyzed and compared with an ongoing analysis of interview data collected from the 2003–4 E‐metrics participants. The evolving nature of the formats, methods of access, and acquisition plans for electronic resources present challenges in describing and measuring them. New methodologies that use a mixed‐methods approach should also evolve to support creative and innovative ways for evaluating an increasingly complex information environment.
On‐demand publishing in the Humanities: project
This article describes the ‘On‐Demand Publishing in the Humanities’ project, funded by JISC as part of the eLib programme, at Liverpool John Moores University. The principal aims of the project were to develop a ‘cheap and cheerful’ model for networking electronic texts, to develop a model agreement for the networking of copyright texts for use with publishers, and to shed light on the problems and benefits of on‐demand publishing for all the stakeholders involved. The article sets out the project methods, describes the extent to which the aims of the project have been fulfilled, analyses the reactions of end‐users to the materials, and attempts an assessment of the current viability of on‐demand publishing as a means of supplying copyright texts to students.