Cost‐benefit analysis: a disparagement of its misuse and misexplanation
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that when managing strategically, a library administrator might want to use cost‐benefit analysis to justify spending and, consequently, would need to understand this methodology.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses and gives examples to illustrate how others have needed a better knowledge of cost‐benefit analysis.Findings – It is helpful for library managers to have a proper knowledge of cost‐benefit analysis.Practical implications – This provides one methodology that librarians should consider when contemplating what purchases to make.Original/value – This paper will help librarians better manage their libraries by making them aware of cost‐benefit analysis.
ETD: total cost of ownership – collecting, archiving and providing access
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of total cost of ownership (TOC) for Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD). Only few articles have been published to discuss the costs associated with repository and/or theses and dissertations (TD). Design/methodology/approach – The paper first provides literature reviews in costs associated with repository and TD. By using the DCC life cycle model, the author presents costs for each actionable category: create or receive, appraise & select, ingest, preservation action, store, access, use and reuse and transform. The paper presents four TOCs to illustrate the changes of TOCs from 2005 to current time. Findings – The paper gives one case study of the TOCs for ETD over the years, and illustrates how the University lowered the TOCs. The current ETD's TOC is on a par with these costs of two other studies published related to repository titles. The TOC has been decreased from the traditional paper-based TD of $75 per title to ETD of $69 in 200...
The history and development of academic library consortia in the United States: an overview
L'article retrace l'histoire des consortia de bibliotheques aux Etats-Unis, et specialement des bibliotheques de l'enseignement superieur. La notion de cooperation entre bibliotheques fait son apparition des la fin du 19eme siecle et s'epanouit dans les annees 60 et 70 autour de l'idee de partage des ressources, notamment au moment ou les bibliotheques commencent a s'automatiser. Les motivations sont principalement economiques. Aujourd'hui les consortia modernes conservent beaucoup des attributs de leurs predecesseurs, mais leurs types et leurs objectifs se sont diversifies. Ils sont devenus des acteurs incontournables dans le secteur des bibliotheques, en particulier dans les relations avec les editeurs de ressources electroniques. On assiste aujourd'hui au regroupement de ces consortia et meme a l'apparition de super-consortia.