JISC Collections

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In 2006, the JISC Content Procurement Company Ltd (trading as JISC Collections) was formed. Originally operating within the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), JISC Collections was made into a company limited by guarantee that mutually trades with its members and is now a JISC funded service.

JISC Collections services all UK Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) institutions and Research Councils (RCs) that receive direct funding from the UK HE and FE funding bodies. It provides institutions with a collections catalogue of free and subscription-based online resources such as full text databases, e-books, digital images, e-journals, online film, learning materials and geospatial data. The negotiations for e-journals are managed under the NESLi2 scheme. The online resources in the collections catalogue (hence the name JISC Collections) are licensed from publishers, aggregators, content providers and each institution decides which resources it wishes to subscribe to based on the needs of their users.

Core to the service provided by JISC Collections is the quality evaluation of online resources, the central negotiation process and the national licensing undertaken for each online resource. These services support the key aims of JISC Collections:

  • to support education and research by offering an affordable, relevant and sustainable collection of online resources
  • to widen accessibility to online resources
  • to save institutions and research councils time and money
  • to improve the management of licensing

Contents

[edit] JISC Collections Strategy

JISC Collections negotiates, manages and acquires licence agreements for online resources that will support education and research and stakeholder requirements. In order to provide value and bring efficiencies to the academic sector the licenses must offer value for money and allow users to adapt the online resources to create teaching and learning materials within a personalised e-learning environment. This can be achieved though a central negotiation and national licensing process that saves institutions and content owners time and money. A recently published value for money report outlined precisely how much time and money is saved through national licensing arrangements. A sample analysis of some 22 resources which JISC provided through national agreement in the year 2004-05 revealed that the total savings to the education community through national agreements for these resources amounted to over £26m. With the annual costs for these resources less than £1m, such figures suggest that for every £1 spent on securing national agreements, the savings amounted to more than £26.

The same report also analysed the time saved by the use of e-resources compared to the use of paper-based equivalents, interlibrary loans, institutionally held CD-ROMs, visits to libraries at alternative locations, etc, which all have time, cost and efficiency implications. These costs can be estimated, said the report, through savings in staff time gained through the use of e-resources.

Using independent and publicly available figures, these access figures translate into efficiency savings for university staff active in teaching and research of nearly £156m in 2004-05. This suggests that the education and research community is gaining some 1.4 million person/days by using e-resources rather than paper-based equivalents. Such a scenario suggests that for every £1 spent on e-resource provision, the return to the community in value of time saved in information gathering is at least £18.

JISC Collections aims to support and contribute to policy developments in e-learning and e-research by listening to the needs of and acting as a central point of contact for the academic the publishing sectors. Collaborative partnerships enable effective communications and allow JISC Collections to create new and innovative licensing and business models in line with e-learning, e-research and publishing developments.

The current collections strategyis under review.

[edit] JISC Collections activities

The collections team undertakes a number of activities in collaboration with HE and FE institutions and content owners. JISC Collections is also supported by format based working groups made up of representatives of the education community and technical experts. The groups advise JISC Collections on the acquisition of content and provide guidance on licensing and collection building strategies. The groups are: e-books, e-journals, geospatial data, images and online film and sound. The groups work with JISC and JISC Collections and often commission studies and reports.

[edit] Exploring new online resources

There are three ways in which an online resource is suggested for evaluation; librarians in institutions inform the collections team of requests from users, a content owner approaches the team or a member of a working group puts forward a suggestion. Following a suggestion the team explores the online resource to check that it is not already included in the Collection, that it is not already being licensed nationally to institutions and that it meets the initial requirements. A collections manager will then set up a meeting with the content owner to inform them of the guidelines, the evaluation criteria and the licensing requirements.

[edit] Guidelines

JISC Collections publishes a number of guidelines for content owners. Content owners are not required to meet all of the guidelines, however it is suggested that as many are met as possible in order to increase visibility, functionality and use of their resources. The guidelines focus on subjects such as metadata, RSS feeds, access management and open URL compliance.

JISC Collections guidelines

[edit] Evaluation criteria

The evaluation criteria assess whether the online resource meets the strategic, business, licensing standards and offers benefits to the academic community. For an online resource to be taken forward the content owner must agree to JISC banding, to implement JISC access management solutions and to use the JISC Model Licence.

[edit] Licensing requirements

JISC Collections uses a model licence as the basis for all licence negotiations. The model licence was originally formed from a JISC and Publishers Association working party and has been updated annually to take into account new teaching, research, institutional and technological developments. The model licence helps JISC Collections maintain consistency and negotiate for the best possible terms and conditions of use whist also respecting the content owners needs.

Guide to the model licence A Guide to the Model Licence Video

[edit] Evaluating online resource

Following successful initial discussions, the collections manager will carry out a consultation with the institutions to assess the online resource. The consultation document includes information on proposed pricing, content, functionality and offers institutions the option of a free trial. The document is placed on the JISC Collections website and the library community is informed of its existence, invited to trial the resource and then feedback comments from their users to JISC Collections.

Institutions are not required to read the consultation document, request a trial or feedback comments, it is an opt-in process. This means that results to consultations vary according to resource content and the time it was issued. The results of the consultation allow the collections manager to assess demand, relevance, pricing and to discover any issues with the content or functionality that have been identified. The results of the consultation are shared with content owner and a decision to move forward to a licence based on the outcomes of further negotiations. The consultation, although not perfect, provides valuable information to the content owner and provides an indication as to the likely subscription revenue they will receive.

[edit] Licensing online resources

The licensing process can take a month or many months depending on the format of the online resource and the business model used.

The licensing process can also be lengthened if a full service and interface needs to be developed to make the content usable. This requires JISC Collections to work with in partnership with the JISC data centres EDINA and MIMAS to create a specification, build, test and implement a solution. Examples of where this has been required are the creation of an online film and sound collection at EDINA and a geospatial data collection at MIMAS.

[edit] Economic models for online resources

There are three main types of business models; the endorsement model and the heritage model and the declining subsidy model.

The endorsement model is where JISC Collections licenses the content from the content owner and then sub-licenses it to the institutions. JISC Collections carries out all the administration for agreement managing the sub-licence agreement forms and the invoicing and also promotes the agreement to the community. The content owner sends an invoice to JISC Collections and the subscription income is passed to the content owner. This model can be applied to all format types.

The heritage model is used only on static content such as archives and backfiles that are of high value to education and research. JISC Collections negotiates a perpetual licence to the content on a national level and pays the content owner a one-off payment. In effect, JISC Collections is purchasing and making the content free to all institutions. There is often a charge associated with the maintenance and hosting of the content.

The declining subsidy model is reserved for innovative and specialist content that require the development of an interface and service. JISC Collections funds the service creation and maintenance and aims to decrease this subsidy over time as the resource becomes embedded. This model is also used to develop new business models such as moving a subscription based online resource into an open access resource.

[edit] Promoting online resources

Once the licensing is complete JISC Collections works collaboratively with the content owner to promote the online resource. Detailed information on the resource is placed on the JISC Collections website to allow an informed decision to be made as to whether a subscription will be taken out or not. A marketing plan can be worked out with the promotions manager to include a launch party, leaflets, posters and workshops. In the licence the content owner agrees to carry out a number of workshops to show how the resource can be used in e-learning and e-research. Promotional activities are reviewed in light of subscription rates.

[edit] Online resource life cycle

Online resources have a lifecycle within JISC Collections; for example a new resource requires more promotional activity than one that has been in the collection for a number of years or even one that was known to the community prior to a JISC Collections agreement. Apart from heritage models, licences are for three years. A year before the end of a licence agreement, JISC Collections will review the success, benefits and model used and carry out another community consultation to asses whether the agreement should be renewed for a further three years.

[edit] Other JISC Collections activities

In addition to the core services offered through JISC Collections, the team also commissions projects and reports, creates tools and runs workshops and events.

[edit] JISC Collections in the news

Some of the agreements negotiated by JISC Collections have been exemplary and highly innovative. Some examples of articles are:

  • JISC has a mind to rescue philosophy treasure trove, Olga Wojtas, Times Higher Education Supplement, 19 August 2005.
  • Contours of the past, Tim Riley, 29 April 2005.
  • Ye olde desktop project, Olga Wojtas, 22 October 2004
  • Adapt to survive the next chapter, Anna Fazackerley, 8 October 2004.
  • Historic chemistry archive goes online for £50, Rebecca Carver, The Guardian, 19 July 2004.
  • Getting the measure of academic databases with JISC Collections, Rebeca Cliffe, [http://www.espltd.com Electronic Publishing Service], 25 September 2006.

Open Law: Free Legal Content Online, Kate Worlock, 12 May 2005.

  • JISC secures IOP archive deal, Mark Chillingworth, Information World Review, 28 January 2005.
  • JISC cash fuels philosophy for Stanford, Mark Chillingworth, 8 September 2005.

[edit] About JISC Collections

[edit] JISC Collections structure

JISC Collections has a board of directors represented by core stakeholders such as institutions, JISC and HEFCE. In addition, JISC Collections reports to the JISC Content and Services committee (JCS) on a quarterly basis. The board and the committee steer, advise and endorse the activities of JISC Collections.

The company is made up of a chief executive officer, a finance director, a team manager, two collections managers, a collections promotions manager, a web editor and an administrator.

A helpdesk facility is outsourced to Swets and e-journal negotiation is outsourced to Content Complete under the name of NESLi2.

[edit] Membership

Higher and further education institutions and research councils that are directly funded by the UK higher and further education funding councils are eligible for free membership. The UK HE and FE funding councils are core members and there is also associative membership available to organizations that are not directly funded by the UK funding councils.

[edit] JISC Collections stakeholders

  • Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
  • Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)
  • Department for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DELLS)
  • Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
  • Department for Employment and Learning (DEL)
  • Learning Skills Council (LSC)
  • Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
  • Department for Employment and Learning (DfES)
  • Higher Education Institutions
  • Further Education Institutions
  • Research Councils
  • Owners and providers of online content

[edit] Background

In 2000, JISC formed the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER). The aim of the DNER was to join up the content and services activities of JISC. It aimed to make more high quality online resources available within the information environment. In 2002, following a report on JISC governance by Sir Brian Follett, JISC was restructured and the work of the DNER was split between a range of development activities known as the Information Environment, and JISC Collections. Originally each collections manager focused on a specific format area but over time this focus devolved. In 2002 Lorraine Estelle joined as the Collections Team Manager and led the team to its current company status becoming Chief Executive Officer in 2006. In the same year David House was appointed Chair of the new mutual trading company - JISC Collections - and the first elections to the new Board were conducted, with Deborah Shorley, Librarian at the University of Sussex, and Hazel Woodward, Librarian at Cranfield University, elected as institutional representatives.

[edit] References

[edit] External links