1. Springer small
school ebook
summit
Charleston Conference
11/02/2011
Jason Price. PhD

2. Springer Summit 11/02/11
My background
 Education: large universities
 Library gig: Hybrid small school environment
 7 colleges = Average FTE ≈ 750
 Consortium: 102 institutions: 66 under 1000 FTE
 Our Executive Director: roots in a college of 250
 Raison de‟être: Serve small schools well
 Downsizing the big deal
 Full Disclosure
 Academic library advisory board 2008-2010
 Big fan of their flexibility & discounted approach
 CEO (Hank) anti- „pick & choose‟ approach still a challenge

3. Springer Summit 11/02/11
The pricing model rabbit…

4. Springer Summit 11/02/11
(Some) challenges we face
1. Use Restrictions / Digital rights management
2. Access vs Ownership
1. Buying the right books
(Because we can‟t buy them all)
4. Platform/Portability/Perpetuity

5. Springer Summit 11/02/11
Filters/Lenses
 Cost vs Book List Price
 User experience

6. Springer Summit 11/02/11
1) Use restrictions/Digital Rights
Management
 Experiment: NetLibrary now Ebsco Ebooks
 Claremont bought 9000 ebooks 2001-2003
 Results: Users hated them
 1 simultaneous user
 Print: Page at a time
 User impact
 Ebooks = Rolled eyes
 Grad students: “I need something I can actually use”
 Smaller school impact: the same

7. Springer Summit 11/02/11
2) Access vs Ownership
 Experiment: Ebrary Academic „Complete‟
 2008- Results:
 Plugin approach often failed
 Access to 50,000 books: List price: $3,335,000
 Claremont annual cost: $12,500
 List price per year = 0.375%
 Still with single user limit
but major limitation = discovery
 Smaller school application
 Per fte list cost ≈ $4
 Consortial negotiation to address minimum
 Implication: Leased collections have a place

8. Springer Summit 11/02/11
3) Buying the right books
 Inthe print book world, we were forced to guess
 Enter the demand driven approach
 EBL Data:
 User selected books used 2-5x more often

9. Springer Summit 11/02/11

10. Springer Summit 11/02/11
3) Buying the right books
 Inthe print world, we were forced to guess
 Enter the demand driven approach
 EBL Data:
 User selected books used 2-5x* more often
 User selected books have 2-3x* broader audience

11. Springer Summit 11/02/11

12. Springer Summit 11/02/11
3) Buying the right books
 Inthe print world, we were forced to guess
 Enter the demand driven approach
 EBL Data:
 User selected books used 2-5x* more often
 User selected books have 2-3x* broader audience
 Result:demand driven approach works
 Experiment: Elsevier Evidence-based selection
 Result: 1 year of use barely covered commitment
 (Broader) Implication: Traditional approval
plans don‟t make sense with ebooks
 Smaller school application: implement a
demand driven approach

13. Springer Summit 11/02/11
4) Platform/Portability/Perpetuity(?)
 Springer Ebook collections
 Experiment: Repurpose engineering blanket order
 Purchase 2005-present subject collections
 Engineering, Mathematics, Computer science
≈25% of list price
 Ongoing annual purchase of 3 collections
 Implication:ebook collections can
broaden access and use
 Smaller school application:
 Attractive pricing for full collection

14. Springer Summit 11/02/11
Springer: Smaller School Application

15. Springer Summit 11/02/11
Summary: Claremont Approach to date
 Leased Collection
 Ebrary Academic Complete
 Discounted Publisher Collections
 Springer Engineering, Math & Computer Science
 Backfiles too
 Title by Title on demand
 Elsevier Evidence-based Selection
 Aggregator-based demand driven purchasing
 Our next step

16. Springer Summit 11/02/11
Ebook (R)evolution
 Reduced use restrictions
 User driven - Buy only what users want
 Or purchases discounted w/ no DRM
 $5K/$10K/$15K Springer Model
 Discounted Publisher models are attractive
 Where core collection is 10% other titles will fill in
 One-off ebook purchases
 Multi-author volumes
 Provides ejournal-like access

17. Springer Summit 11/02/11
Librarian Acquired

18. Springer Summit 11/02/11

19. Springer Summit 11/02/11
4) Platform/Portability/Perpetuity
 Ownership / Purchase
 60 print books Title by title
 $80 each - $4800
 Subscription
 Leased collection $4.00/fte x 1200 FTE = $4800
 >50000 books!
 Cant be beat, if consortium waives minimum
 Or even if not @ $10,000…
 Purchase ebooks at full price
 $100/each = 48 books (w/DRM)
 Value quite limited