POST: New group purchasing pilot to lower cost of digital archival collections

Paola Marchionni (JISC) has written a post summarizing a recent collaboration between JISC and three publishers to lower the cost of access for digital primary source collections. Working with ProQuest, Adam Matthew Digital, and Brill, JISC designed a pilot project with the aim of developing a “more efficient, coordinated and transparent” approach to leveraging institutional purchasing power in support of researchers, teachers, and learners.

HOW IT WORKS
Between March-mid-July 2017 university libraries will be able to pledge their interest in any of the products on offer by the publishers.

Institutions select the collections they’re interested in through the Jisc Collections web site, where they will also find more information about each of the products as well as the prices, including starting list prices and discount triggers, in an open and transparent way. All prices are for one-off purchases and include platform/hosting fees, so there will be no recurrent annual costs to libraries. All libraries will sign up to a Jisc model licence.

At the end of the pledging period (mid-July), the price for each collection will be calculated according to an institution’s Jisc band and how many products have been pledged for cumulatively by institutions per publisher. Publishers will then invoice the libraries accordingly.

Based on the results of this UK pilot, dh+lib readers in the US might seek to work within consortia or other arrangements with the same goal in mind.