1. Facing the future:
Round-up and overview
Stephen Town
Director of Information
University of York

2. Round-up
•
•
•
•
Strategic challenges and tactical responses
The value proposition
Working together
Bargaining

3. Speakers’ points: a selection 1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gary:
David:
David:
Martin:
Martin:
Martin:
Martin:
“vendor management”
“value proposition”
“fair pricing”
“access benefits”
“complex reality”
“use price”
“value for money”

4. Speakers’ points: a selection 2
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Martin:
Martin:
Tony:
Tony:
Tony:
Sally:
Sally:
“brand driven use”
“open access” 11:38
“competitive concerns”
“collaborative working”
“reduced overheads”
“no certainty”
“content imbalance”

5. Speakers’ points: a selection 3
• Sally:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sally:
Sally:
Sally:
Sally:
Sally:
Sally:
“sustainable
expenditure”
“finding failures”
“new activities”
“library rethink”
“special differentiation”
“value presentation”
“relevant indicators”

6. Lessons from the past?
• Avoid “lose-lose” situations
• Don’t get caught in the middle: “blameblame”
• Neither “fight” nor “flight” reaction
• Don’t reward negative behaviours
• Failure to influence scholarly communication
at any point? Giving it all away?
• Collecting counter-productive evidence?

7. Cost and Value
“focusing on cost without being able to
demonstrate [service] value and quality …
leaves the initiative to people whose chief
concern is cost-control or profit: the funders
and the vendors”
Whitehall, T (1995)

8. Strategy or tactics: the context
•
•
•
•
•
Resource inflation greater than growth
Service development demands
Quality and expectation demands
Competitive differentiation?
Low staff inflation

9. Conclusions 1
• Costs must be controlled
– Individually
– Institutionally
– Collectively
• Purchase choice must shift to value
– Quantitative measures insufficient
– Qualitative evaluation critical to debate
– Understanding of new user behaviours

10. Conclusions 2
• Maximising return
– Better awareness
– Active exploitation
– Intermediate guidance
• Minimising overheads
–
–
–
–
Licensing, compliance and bureaucracy
Active engagement with publishers at all levels
Charging back for University contributions
Managing expectations

11. Questions?