The document discusses ebook purchasing consortia models. It summarizes three pilots - Knowledge Unlatched, the Jisc eBooks Consortium Pilot, and the eBass25 Pilot. The Jisc eBooks Consortium Pilot involved 6 UK libraries and found very high ebook usage, with most titles being used by at least one library. Publishers were interested in the usage data but wanted to protect revenue. The document outlines challenges for publishers, aggregators, and libraries in establishing ebook consortia and discusses how libraries can work together on shared ebook purchasing.

1. eBooks purchasing: Consortia Models
Carolyn Alderson & Hazel Woodward
JISC Collections
February 4, 2014 | Click: View=>Header&Footer | Slide 1

2. Welcome and Overview Agenda
 eBook Context & Models to build on
 Pilots:
– Knowledge Unlatched - making titles openly available
– Jisc eBooks Consortium Pilot – subject focus
– eBass25 Pilot – exploring the EBA model
 Key Challenges of eBook consortia models
– Publishers, aggregators, libraries
 Libraries harnessing shared eBook interests
 Q&A
JISC Collections
| Slide 2

3. eBook Context & Models to Build on
 A market full of complexities
 A market with a wide variety of demands and increasing expectations
 A market with emerging technologies
 A market with plenty of history
 Monographs, eTextbooks
 Models
– Full Collections
– Subject Collections
– Patron Drive Acquisition
– Title Selection
– Evidence Based Acquisition
JISC Collections
| Slide 3

4. Knowledge Unlatched
 “Knowledge Unlatched: enabling open access for scholarly
books in the arts and humanities”
 Essentially, the KU model depends on many libraries around
the world sharing the payment of a single Title Fee to the
publisher, in return for a book being made available on a
Creative Commons licence via OAPEN and HathiTrust as a
fully downloadable PDF
 As more libraries participate in KU, the per-library cost of
‘unlatching’ each title declines
JISC Collections
| Slide 4

5. Knowledge Unlatched: how it works
 Publishers
– Offer titles & set Title Fee
– Post open book
– Sell premium version
 KU
– Negotiates with publishers
– Collates titles
– Handles payments & preservation
 Libraries
– Select & order titles
– Pay Title Fee
JISC Collections
| Slide 5

6. Knowledge Unlatched: the Pilot
 The Pilot aims to secure pledges from at least 200 libraries worldwide, in
order to unlatch a collection of 28 titles from 13 scholarly publishers
 In January 2014 over 170 libraries from 12 countries had signed up
 Moreover, in December KU received backing from HEFCE who agreed
to make a grant of up to £550 to all universities in England that
participate in the pilot
 This reduces the participation fee paid by English university libraries by
50%
 The deadline is 28th February 2014
JISC Collections
| Slide 6

7. http://www.slideshare.net/sconul/jisc-e-books-consortia-project
JISC Collections
February 4, 2014 | Click: View=>Header&Footer | Slide 7

8. Ebook consortia pilot project
 The pilot project had a very simple business model which was based on
a model trialled by Max Planck Institute (Germany) and CBUC (Spain)
 Consortium of 6 UK academic libraries with large Engineering Faculties
 6 publishers of engineering books (some large engineering publishers
excluded as libraries had existing big deals)
 Whenever one of the libraries purchased an ebook, all libraries had
access
 ‘Price multiplier’ negotiated with each publisher. In the pilot this was paid
by Jisc Collections. In a ‘real life’ consortium it would be split among the
libraries
 Usage data (COUNTER BR1 & BR2) collected and analysed by
Information Power Ltd.
JISC Collections
| Slide 8

9. Ebook consortia pilot: participants
 Libraries
– Cranfield University; Loughborough University; Newcastle University;
Brunel University; University of Southampton; University of Liverpool
 Publishers
– Artech House; Cambridge University Press (CUP); Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET); Taylor & Francis (T&F); Wiley;
World Scientific Publishing (WSP)
 Hosting service
– Dawson Books - Dawsonera
JISC Collections
| Slide 9

10. Ebook consortia pilot: implementation
 It had been hoped to run the pilot from August 2013 through to July 2014
 However, negotiations with publishers and hosting services took longer
than expected and libraries were slow to start ordering title
 There were workflow issues for both libraries and the Dawson
 Delay in the provision of MARC records (which research has
demonstrated are vital to discovery) may have had a bearing on usage
 First orders were placed in December 2012
 The pilot was up and running!
JISC Collections
| Slide 10

11. Ebook consortia pilot: findings
 Very high usage of ebooks
 All libraries got more value than they purchased
 98.6% of ebooks were used by at least 1 library
 Percentage of ebooks purchased and not used by an
individual library averaged 7%. (This is a very low figure
compared to recent PDA studies in Germany and the USA)
JISC Collections
| Slide 11

12. Ebook consortia pilot: overall analysis
% purchased
% used
% used but
not
purchased
% purchased
but not used
Library 1
34%
95%
61%
1%
Library 2
25%
52%
27%
11%
Library 6
15%
42%
26%
8%
Library 4
13%
49%
35%
6%
Library 5
13%
27%
15%
9%
Library 3
0%
20%
100%
0%
JISC Collections
| Slide 12

13. Ebook consortia pilot: purchase analysis
No. purchased but No. used but not
not used
purchased
No. of library’s
purchases used
by others
Library 3
72%
189%
94%
Library 6
50%
218%
77%
Library 4
43%
154%
100%
Library 2
42%
305%
100%
Library 5
4%
185%
85%
Library 1
0%
250%
0%
JISC Collections
| Slide 13

14. Ebook consortia pilot: usage analysis
Use of purchased
Use of nonpurchased
Use by others of
library’s
purchases
Library 4
2246
4932
3753
Library 6
1589
3532
3875
Library 5
1491
1633
4675
Library 3
320
3828
1271
Library 2
252
48
2497
Library 1
0
1210
0
JISC Collections
| Slide 14

15. What did librarians think of the pilot?
 5 out of the 6 libraries said they would be interested in pursuing
consortial ebook purchasing using this business model
 In the light of the data they were pleased with both the level of use of
titles they had purchased, and their use of titles purchased by other
institutions
 They would be happy to put money into a consortial ‘pot’ to widen their
access to ebook titles (funds permitting)
 One librarian commented: “Increased access is the real benefit and
saving money is a bonus”
JISC Collections
| Slide 15

16. Ebook consortia pilot: types of consortia
 Librarians commented that the important factor in a
consortia is having synergy between the libraries (e.g.
research/ teaching focused)
 The majority favoured subject-based ebook consortium
 The portfolio of publishers participating in the consortia was
very important
 Most favoured a minimum level of financial commitment from
participating libraries
JISC Collections
| Slide 16

17. What did the publishers think?
 The majority of publishers were disappointed with the sales figures but, on the
whole, were pleased and very interested in the usage data
 In general, the smaller publishers were most enthusiastic…”our role as a
publisher is to get our content out there…. we need to get our brand noticed”
 All publishers commented that they needed to protect the value of their titles
 Of the 3 larger publishers only one was positive about the business model.
However, they felt that a variable price multiplier would be necessary to enable
them to offer both back list and current high demand titles
 One publisher said they were very interested in evidence based purchasing and
would like Jisc Collections to pursue that model
 Another publishers said “we are keen to work with library consortia but we don’t
like shared ownership/collections… we would rather give a discount”
JISC Collections
| Slide 17

18. E-BASS25, funded by Jisc as part
of their Digital Infrastructure
Programme in 2012/13, was led
by Royal Holloway University of
London on behalf of the M25
Consortium of Academic
Libraries.
Specific named partners were:
Kingston University
Science Museum (on behalf of
the Museum Librarians and
Archivists Group)
JISC Collections
andCollections Consulting Limited.
JISC SERO
23rd September 2013 | KAFEC| Slide 18

19. Some points to note from the eBASS25 Pilot
 Role of Jisc Collections in the pilot
– Publishers
 EBASS 25, Work Package 5 - Procurement Guidelines
http://
digirep.rhul.ac.uk/file/5b85dab5-7bf4-7c7b-7731-b552f029e4ae/1/EBASS%2025%20
 Books Tender Agreement – designed for suppliers who are either aggregators or
booksellers
 The Evidence Based Acquisition Model is only available directly from publishers.
 Research carried out in EBASS 25 Workshop with libraries suggested this model
was the preferred model for consortial purchasing of E-Books.
– Less DRM issues
JISC Collections
| Slide 19

20. Example: Cambridge University Press EBA eBooks Opt in
 Institutions opt for 12 months or 6 months access to either all monographs or to
specified subject collections. (The total list price of the complete monographs
collection is over £1,250,000).
 Prepayment uses Jisc Banded pricing

12 month access option:

At the mid-point of the agreement (end of 6 months) institutions must use 33% of their upfront
payment by selecting books up to that value to keep in perpetuity by the end of the 7 th month. At
the end of the 12 month period the institution decides the remainder of the selection of books to
keep in perpetuity based on usage (or other criteria). This decision is made by the end of the
13th month.

6 month access option:

At the end of the 6 month period the institution shall decide the selection of books to keep in
perpetuity based on usage (or other criteria). This decision is made by the end of the 7th month

Humanities, Social Sciences, or STM
 How to convert to a closed consortium agreement?
JISC Collections
| Slide 20

21. EBA as a consortium model
In advance:
–What content to access? Years / subjects / All
–Each institution has to contribute an amount upfront
• How is that decided? What amount is relevant for each
institution?
• How much will the combined deposit buy at the end?
• Will it buy shared content?
– What will be the cost of a title in that case? Multiplier?
– Usage analysis
–What if more content is required than the prepayment covers?
JISC Collections
| Slide 21

22. Assessing the EBA Model
Total EBA Prepayment agreed
Multiplier agreed to share across all members
Number of member libraries in consortium
Total titles purchased at end of year
Average cost per title including multiplier
Total COUNTER usage
Average cost per download
£100,000
2.5
12
400
£250
250,000
£0.40
If no consortium deal
Cost of books purchased at standard rates
Multiplied by number of libraries
Saving through consortium purchase
£40,000 e.g. £100 each
£480,000
£380,000
JISC Collections
| Slide 22

23. Usage cost allocation v original EBA contribution
Library
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Totals
own usage of
purchased titles
3000
40000
30000
1500
6000
12000
3300
80000
5000
5200
60000
4000
250000
% of total
Usage cost allocation?
usage
1.20%
£1,200.00
16.00%
£16,000.00
12.00%
£12,000.00
0.60%
£600.00
2.40%
£2,400.00
4.80%
£4,800.00
1.32%
£1,320.00
32.00%
£32,000.00
2.00%
£2,000.00
2.08%
£2,080.00
24.00%
£24,000.00
1.60%
£1,600.00
100.00%
£100,000.00
How does usage cost allocation compare to original contribution?
JISC Collections
| Slide 23

24. Key Challenges
 Publishers
– Knowing who is in the consortium and requirements
– Protecting revenue
 Aggregators
– Workflows
– Appropriate usage to publishers and libraries
– Reporting
 Libraries
– Gaining commitment and consensus
– Organisation, workflows
– Negotiating the deal (price, DRM etc)
JISC Collections
| Slide 24

25. Libraries: Harnessing Shared eBooks purchasing
 Planning
– Leading the consortium / co-ordinating the activity day to day
– Committing budget at the outset
– Which content and which model?
– Sharing the cost
– Publishers / Aggregators
How to go about
all this?
– Licensing
 Setting objectives / Expectations/ Negotiating the deal
 Reporting, Communication
 Assessing the deal; Decision-making
 The AGREEMENT; Invoicing and Payment
 Usage analysis/ Assessment of the model
JISC Collections
| Slide 25

26. Q&A
Contact details:
Carolyn Alderson, Acting Head of Licensing, Jisc Collections and
UKSG Education Officer - c.alderson@jisc-collections.ac.uk
Hazel Woodward, Director, Information Power Ltd. hazel.woodward73@gmail.com
JISC Collections
February 4, 2014 | | Slide 26