2019 Charleston Library Conference

Whether you are at the grocery store buying an economy-size pack of pastries or acquiring scholarly content for an institution, when a product is sold in bulk, its price is lowered, ensuring that the customer receives the best value for their purchase. Librarians are utilizing bulk acquisitions to help maximize their shrinking budgets with more content for less money and are measuring their return on investment (ROI) by comparing the cost of the acquired research to patrons’ usage of the content. However, many other factors must be taken into consideration when measuring a library’s ROI, such as the overall quality and coverage of the content purchased and the additional human and technological resources needed to review, analyze, negotiate, integrate, and communicate the large volume of newly acquired content. Due to the limited funding that libraries are receiving, staff cuts are unfortunately inevitable and becoming an epidemic all over the world, all while the job responsibilities of each role are expanding and patron-driven demands continue to rise. Even as the industry has shifted into an electronic universe with endless data and analytical tools, human resources/staff still drive the majority of the daily functions and decision making within an institution’s library, making measuring the ROI of libraries critical to their success and survival. So how can libraries get the most from these bulk acquisitions? And how can publishers and aggregators better support them and see mutual benefits for themselves?

In this session, attendees will hear viewpoints from a librarian, publisher, and an aggregator on the benefits of bulk acquisitions compared to the title-by-title approach and ways these parties can come together to create innovative solutions for achieving a maximized ROI for libraries while also catering to the academic community by providing access to trusted peer-reviewed research.