subject: commercial online materials
library collections
online library materials
library resources
research libraries
CLIR Press Release
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: August 20, 2001
Contact: Daniel Greenstein 202-939-4762
Report Examines Strategies for Managing the Costs of Commercial Online Materials
WASHINGTON, D.C.As libraries spend more on commercial online materials, they must find new ways to contain costs. A recently published report from the Digital Library Federation and the Council on Library and Information Resources, entitled Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources: Issues and Practices, describes how a number of leading research libraries are addressing this challenge.
Author Timothy D. Jewell, head of collection management services at the University of Washington, provides an in-depth look at how several research libraries select, license, present, and support the use of commercial online materials. Uncovering a variety of practices, he identifies those that are proving to be most effective integrating commercial online materials into library collections. He includes a decision tool that emphasizes and supports strategic planning, and encourages careful consideration of how libraries’ functions and professional staff are organized. He also supplies a reference tool, citing working papers and operational guidelines that libraries rely on but rarely “publish.” Finally, the author frames an important and practical development agenda by encouraging libraries to collaborate in designing information systems capable of organizing the detailed and often dynamic information they need to maintain about their commercial holdings.
The report is the second in a series that will focus on challenges in digital collection development. A forthcoming work will examine the use of digital collections created from library holdings.
Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources: Issues and Practices is available on CLIR’s Web site at https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub99/pub99.pdf. Print copies will soon be available for ordering through the Web site.
The Digital Library Federation is a nonprofit consortium of libraries and related organizations that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technology to extend collections and services. It operates under the umbrella of the Council on Library and Information Resources, which acts on behalf of libraries, archives, and universities to develop and encourage collaborative strategies for preserving and providing access to scholarly resources.
