ALIA 2001 TAFE libraries conference

E-learning = E-resources + Consortia purchase of electronic resources The LEARN network experience in SA TAFE

Stephen Michael Barnett

Paper prepared for the ALIA 2001 TAFE Libraries Conference
Brisbane 21st October-23rd October 2001.

ABSTRACT

This paper under the heading of "Power of Partnerships", examines the history of cooperative purchase of electronic resources in South Australia. It discusses the LEARN network's database trials, the subsequent partnering with the public library network, PLAIN and the setting up of a state-wide consortia group across all library networks to work towards access to information for all South Australians. There is discussion of the Australian context of consortia purchasing and an outline of some major international consortia arrangements. Mention will also be made of discussion with members of two TAFE library peak bodies, the National Working Group for TAFE Library Services and the ALIA National TAFE Section. It will cover the history of our consortia group, ACCESS SA as well as some outstanding issues for TAFE library consortia in Australia. Future directions are also discussed.

In 1995, I last spoke at this conference in this place, addressing a paper in which I spoke of TAFE libraries as being 'wherehouses' of information not 'warehouses'. With the advent of e-books and full text journal databases, this expression of a library as a place where you can go to in a traditional walk in mode or in an online experience to be shown where to go for information is even more the case than it was in 1995. In this presentation I will talk about first of all the current structure of the LEARN network of TAFE libraries, give a little history of our use of databases and then focus on the issue of consortia purchasing to provide electronic resources or 'e-resources'. I will mention other consortia models and speak to you about the progress of state and national consortia arrangements, focusing on the TAFE experience in South Australia.

The South Australian TAFE Learning Resources Network (LEARN) is the network of SA TAFE campus Learning Resource Centres and 6 Joint-use libraries. The LEARN network has its roots as an informal network of Library managers in the late 1970's and has grown to be a highly successful formal network of TAFE library /learning resource centre services in South Australia. There are currently 152 staff who are regarded as being part of the LEARN network.

The LEARN network has as its Mission:
As an integral part of TAFE SA, the LEARN network:
Actively encourages, guides and empowers students and staff to acquire lifelong learning skills through the provision of information literacy programs
Supports and responds to changes in the educational programs and delivery methods of TAFE SA Institutes
Encourages and facilitates access to a wide range of up-to-date, relevant information and learning resources, including those in electronic formats
Promotes and implements the principles of equal opportunity, including issues of social justice, equity and access

The LEARN network has had many models of access to databases, from networked access from CD-ROM towers at Torrens Valley, to the more common model of standalone dedicated workstations, to little or no access at other campuses.

The most commonly accessed resources have been in the past, AUSTROM, which indexes Australian material and EBSCO's World Magazine Bank, which has full text for a mixture of American and Australian journals with some abstracts. There has also been some use of a variety of business indexes and other specialised indexes.

With the exponential growth in students and staff accessing the Internet and the growing need to make material available online, especially for off campus students, we needed to examine the opportunities for better access to a wider range of resources for our clients.

When I attended the Online Ondisc Conference in January 1999, I had discussions with vendors and some interstate TAFE library staff about the concept of national TAFE library consortia.
Julie Stevens from UMI (the agents for PROQUEST) was particularly helpful in attempting to facilitate discussions at the Conference and subsequently, David Feighan from EBSCO was also very co-operative in his making available his joint conference presentation. Also Carolyn Beatty from Information Access Company was greatly helpful.
I managed however only to have these initial discussions and this concept has largely died, at least for the moment.

Through the LEARN' Networks, Library and Information, Communication and Technology Committee (LICTAC), it was decided to formally trial a number of databases, then make recommendations to the LEARN network about co-operative or consortia purchases of the databases to provide savings to the network. Just prior to the LEARN network at Gawler in July 1999, staff were invited to attend a workshop at Adelaide TAFE's Light Square LRC where vendors demonstrated their products. At the July, LEARN meeting at Gawler, there was also an opportunity to use the various products. Over the next three months, LEARN staff were invited to access the databases from a variety of situations, i.e. work and home, as well as promoting them to staff and students.

SATAFE CONSORTIA

A LICTAC subgroup met on a number of occasions to discuss the progress of the trials and, following on again from informal discussions at Online Ondisc, a more formalised series of meetings was held with staff from PLAIN, the State Library's Division that manages infrastructure projects for public libraries in this state. We first met with Shane Cathcart, from PLAIN and then later arranged a meeting with David Feighan from EBSCO and with Roger Coleman, representing CLASA, and (Council of Library Administrators of South Australia) to discuss jointly purchasing with the PLAIN network, "World Magazine Bank"

These discussions were fruitful and in December 1999 contracts were signed for World Magazine Bank with a similar pricing structure established with the PLAIN Network. I was able to attract a small amount of sponsorship from EBSCO to have good quality posters printed to promote World Magazine Bank for both the public library and TAFE sectors. A lesser number of Institutes chose to buy Electric Library Australasia and only one bought Tapestry.

In late 1999, the South Australian ALIA Acquisitions seminar was held where I gave a paper on the topic of consortia and others approached me about the possibility of statewide consortia. In early 2000, we formed a working party, chaired by Helen Hennessy, (formerly with TAFE and the State Library) and with representatives from the health libraries, from specials, from TAFE and the State Library.

We created a project we called: ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA
From a briefing document we prepared:

Aim of Project

Providing access to electronic information to all South Australians.

This project builds upon the success of Premier Olsen's Information Economy initiatives of October 1999.

In conjunction with the academic, public, school and special library networks of South Australia, it was envisaged that ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA would offer access to a full range of commercial databases and other electronic resources to support the educational, cultural, personal and economic interests of the people of South Australia from their homes, offices, businesses, libraries and schools.

ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA would ensure access to a range of information resources for all residents of all ages, in all economic circumstances, in all walks of life and in all regions of the state of South Australia through the Internet. Residents will be able to access these resources via Internet-connected computers in homes, businesses, schools and libraries.

ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA would maximise the use of public funds through the cooperative purchase of these information resources.

ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA would support of the Government's effort to create a learning State and encourage life-long learning,

As a result of a recent series of meetings of librarians from across a wide range of public sector and academic organisations, an in-principle agreement to proceed with an investigation into consortia purchasing of electronic resources was gained.

It was envisaged that such a consortium approach would facilitate statewide access by a range of library sectors, provide a united approach to database vendors and provide more competitive pricing on electronic information products for participants. The project was tentatively called ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

While the development of an Internet infrastructure is progressing across South Australia, access to quality information through the Internet is still in its infancy. Many commercial databases that provide access to up to the minute and quality economic, social and educational information continue to be priced beyond the reach of most educational and information organisations outside of universities.

The current environment where each school, library and Government department office are seen as individual institutions by database vendors particularly disadvantages regional areas in that the costs of accessing commercial databases is often prohibitive to regional institutions with small communities. The result of this is that the information and development gap between the more affluent and mobile city areas and smaller rural communities continues to widen.

A purchasing consortium that involves all library sectors in South Australia and where the entire state was seen as a single site would:

• Facilitate a significant reduction in the cost of purchasing commercial databases;
• Provide a less prohibitive price to commercial databases for regional and small communities;
• Increase access to quality economic, social and educational resources across the state;
• Improve regional development by enabling organisations and professionals in regional areas to have access to information locally reducing the need to use costly information brokers to supply required information;
• Promote education and knowledge development on a local or regional level.

ACCESS SOUTH AUSTRALIA would be following similar initiatives such as already undertaken in Victoria, through the Gulliver Project,

http://librariesvictoria.vicnet.net.au/gulliver/libonlin.htm
Libraries Online

The six projects, operating under the banner of Libraries Online, were to provide substantial benefits for the Victorian community in general and disadvantaged groups in particular by increasing access to online communications, information resources and multimedia computers.

in Singapore through the TiARA project http://www.digilib.org.sg/

TiARA stands for Timely information for All, Relevant and Affordable. TiARA is a multi-agency effort of the National Computer Board, the National Library Board, the National Science and Technology Board and participating libraries.

In support of the Government's effort to create a learning nation and encourage life-long learning, TiARA Services are currently provided Free-of-Charge to all Singapore residents. "TiARA serves as the gateway to a network of borderless libraries and information services. It provides a comprehensive one-stop source of information for the businessmen, students, their parents and teachers, scientists, engineers and researchers and the professionals alike. TiARA is for all Singapore residents. You can be a student, researcher, teacher, businessman, anyone."

and in many North American States including:

• Inspire http://www.inspire-indiana.net/ in Indiana,

"To provide the residents of Indiana with equitable access to online electronic information resources that enhance the quality of their everyday lives, the depth of their educational experience and the economic prosperity of their communities.

To provide high-quality information resources that have been evaluated based on criteria that include richness and authority of content, reliability of source, ease of use, and suitability for Indiana residents.

To ensure access to these information resources for all residents of all ages, in all economic circumstances, in all walks of life and in all regions of the state of Indiana through Internet-connected computers in homes, businesses, schools and libraries.

and in Alabama

• Alabama Virtual Library http://www.virtual.lib.al.us/

The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL).

This service, funded by a $3 million appropriation from the Alabama legislature, provides current information to all Alabamians. It allows every public school child, every student in a two-year or four-year college and every public library patron in the state access to thousands of reliable resources online including full-text magazine articles, electronic reference books, encyclopaedias, medical information, statistical sources and homework aids. All of these resources can be accessed through computers at local public libraries and public schools throughout Alabama.

Alabama is able to achieve substantial discounts by contracting for information databases on a state-wide basis because the per student cost is less for the state as a whole than it is for small, individual contacts

• MAGNOLIA, the Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access http://www.lib.usm.edu/~magnolia/magnolia.html

MAGNOLIA (Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities Through Library Information Access) is a statewide consortium which is funded by the Mississippi Legislature and which provides online databases for publicly funded K-12 schools, public libraries, community college libraries, and university libraries in Mississippi.

In addition to searching the databases in libraries across the state, individuals can also access many of the electronic resources available through MAGNOLIA from their home or office computers.

What we first of all were seeking to provide for the citizens of South Australia was access to a new product, Australian Public Affairs - Full Text, which is an online collection of scanned images of the top 200 Australian journals indexed in APAIS, the Australian Public Affairs Information Service produced by the National Library of Australia.

All sectors indicated strong interest in this product, as it will be a prime source of Australian material as opposed to the North American focused databases currently purchased. However all sectors indicated that the current pricing structure from the vendor was prohibitive.

Terms of reference

To set up and maintain close alliances with existing networks and consortia to establish a cost effective statewide approach to the purchase of electronic resources for publicly funded libraries in the state. These networks include PLAIN (the network of public libraries, LEARN (the network of TAFE libraries), specialized government libraries, education and health libraries, through their Health Libraries Consortium.

To facilitate coordination between existing library networks and provide a cost effective means for negotiating with vendors on members behalf.

To seek funding opportunities to progress this project to a business case stage. It is envisaged that this would involve a review of international best practice; consultation with interested stakeholders and the creation of a proposed model for South Australia with implementation costs.

To establish a forum to evaluate and recommend electronic resources suitable for consortia purchasing.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITH THE PROJECT TO DATE?

There have been a number of successes but at the same time a number of frustrations. We have had the support of the State Library in terms of offers of accommodation for project facilities.

We have had some statewide trials of a number of database products, including APAIS Fulltext and Emerald from MCB.

However despite our early efforts we have not at the time of writing been able to attract project funding. We believe we need a project sponsor, at a senior level of Government to assist us to gain funding to allow a real business case to be made.

A major issue we have kept in mind has been the existence of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) Consortia and Licensing Working Group (CLWG), which has been working on consortia at the National and State Library level. Whilst their initial plans have involved only the state and National libraries, there is always the possibility that we might see a whole of state or whole nation approach to funding occur.

"CASL formed a Consortia and Licensing Working Group (CLWG) in October 1999 to investigate the feasibility of establishing a consortium. The aim was to simplify licensing arrangements, improve cost benefits, and to explore opportunities to make electronic products more widely available to Australians.

During its first year, through monthly teleconferences and a private e-list, the CLWG worked through the many preliminary questions about setting up a consortium, including governance, funding, products to be subscribed to, licence agreements, access, training and promotion. Fourteen recommendations were made to the CASL meeting held in October 2000, and formal approval was given for a one-year trial from February 2001.

The consortium model selected enables the National Library of Australia to act as lead negotiator for the consortium and authorises it to sign agreements on behalf of other member libraries. The National Library of Australia is also bearing the administrative costs for three years. Some consortia subscribe to a core set of products for all members, but given the diversity of members, their current subscriptions, and their financial situations; there are no mandatory products for the CASL Consortium."[ O'Neill 2001]

More information about this consortium may be found at this url:
http://www.caslconsortium.org/index.html

I have also investigated a closer association with CAUL and its consortia but decided early because of the cost of joining the consortia as a member, I could not justify in the short term. The $1500 cost whilst not a large cost for a university library, could be a significant cost for an individual TAFE campus library, in fact in the short term it could outweigh the potential savings from discounts that a TAFE library might expect in a consortia deal. A little background on the CAUL consortia follows.

CAUL licencing and consortia arrangements

The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) has been facilitating consortial purchasing of electronic databases since 1993 - some with seed funding from the Commonwealth, but most from the budgets of the thirty-nine individual members. CEIRC, CAUL's consortial purchasing program, has current agreements for more than thirty products ranging from major bibliographic databases to large journal aggregations, both single- and multi-publisher, to specialised subject databases. It has facilitated trials for a great many more. Current offers can be monitored on the web site:
[http://www.caul.edu.au/datasets/offers.html].

LEARN has had some success in negotiating special pricing on NewsText and we continue to go to vendors with a single voice. I have dealt with trials of Proquest, World Book Online and Emerald most recently. I assisted the Australian Bureau of Statistics to attempt to negotiate an Australian wide TAFE pricing for AusStats through the TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) group, but this was unsuccessful and given back to local jurisdictions to negotiate. We are currently taking a second look at the Proquest products. LEARN now has a formal database trial page with an online form. See this link for more information:

http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lsrsc/learn/databases.htm.

I hope that we can one day go to vendors as a State and have success. Meanwhile the concept of a National TAFE Consortia may well have some merit to be reconsidered.

References

Barnett, Stephen and Pilcher, Pia. 1995 "Wherehouses not Warehouses: training the end user to steer onto the 'Net and avoid the potholes -just in time", presented in Brisbane at Australian Library and Information Association National TAFE Library Conference.[Unpublished],

Barnett, Stephen and Pilcher, Pia.1998 "Was Cassandra wrong? Creating an on-line library culture: a South Australian VET perspective", presented in Adelaide at Australian Library and Information Association National Conference

Costello, Diane 2001 "Strength in numbers-CAUL licencing and consortia arrangements" Incite, August

[Available online http://www.alia.org.au/incite/2001/08/caul.html]

Feighan, David 1999 "Saving a buck and avoiding the muck: consortium models in database delivery: the Australian experience "

[Available online http://www.csu.edu.au/special/online99/proceedings99/]

O' Neill, Patrick, 2001 "Co-operation the key" Incite, August

[Available online http://www.alia.org.au/incite/2001/08/casl.html]