Balancing the Books: Acquiring and Budgeting for E-Content in the Academic Library
Seminar, 16 May 2006
Friends House, Euston Road, London
Ex VAT prices(inc. lunch): Members £125 Non-members £175
Ebooks are gradually joining e-journals as an established feature of the academic library scene. However, one important topic has received relatively little attention: how can we effectively manage the acquisition of e-content within the constraints of existing budgets?
Questions of budget allocation, variety of provision, collection development policies and usage data are all relevant here. How do we strike the right balance between printed copies and e-books? How do we reconcile demand for print with issues of access and availability? If e-books are the chosen option, what are the relative advantages of large packages over title-by-title selection? How can we best structure our budgets to cope with ad hoc purchase as well as ongoing commitments to journals, databases and large packages of e-books? What role can the new electronic resource management systems play in the search for supply chain efficiencies in this complex area? And how can suppliers and publishers help?
Our speakers in this highly practical seminar will offer answers drawn from their wide experience in different roles within the academic sector. Speakers at the seminar will include:
- Jacy Clarke, University of Teesside
- Mark Howard, Dawson Books
- Robert Bley & Alan Oliver, Ex Libris UK
- Dr Peter Shepherd, COUNTER project
- Chris Jones, 2info Ltd
- Jane Kaye, University of Huddersfield
