Decisions about renewing e-resources are made by the Library Director in consultation with the Librarians Group and, as appropriate, the faculty or other members of the Berry community. Decisions are based on usage data, cost, and the availability of other resources that meet a similar need. See below for details about how use and price data are used to evaluate renewal decisions.
Most renewals are for a one-year period on a calendar year or fiscal year basis. Occasionally the financial benefits of agreeing to a multi-year contract are significant, and if the likelihood of cancellation is very low, a two- or three-year agreement is acceptable.
Once the intent to renew is affirmed, the Acquisitions Assistant or Office Manager may assist with communications with the vendor.
We have established three performance metrics for identifying direct journal subscriptions for review:
For titles where any of these thresholds are exceeded, liaisons will have a discussion with department faculty to determine if the title should be kept, and if so to develop alternative relative benchmarks. Because of the diversity of database purpose and content types, liaisons will also work with department faculty to develop relative benchmarks for all database subscriptions.
Annual Report, 2016-17
E-resource invoices must be approved by the Library Director. Payment is done by the Office Manager, who provides a copy to the Acquisitions Coordinator for entry into OCLC WMS as appropriate. Only invoices paid on line items 9144 (database services), 9036 (periodicals), and 9133 (e-books) are entered in WMS.
Invoices are paid by purchase order or with one of the library's credit cards. If paid by purchase order it can take several weeks for payment to reach the vendor, particularly in the case of large amounts, which must be signed by the provost and the chief financial officer.
To be paid in a fiscal year, at least half of the subscription period should fall within the fiscal year. The business office may hold invoices that do not fall within the current fiscal year.