AARL

News from CAUL

The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) recently announced two major new resource-sharing programs aimed at improving access to scholarly information for members of Australian universities. Building on a long history of co-operation CAUL has taken an important decision to introduce a national borrowing scheme for Australian university students and staff. Also under the auspices of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, CAUL is planning for the introduction of a National Site License following examples already set by the UK and Canada.

These initiatives occur at a time when the need for collaboration is particularly great within the university sector. The effects of reduced funding combined with a low Australian dollar, continuing increases in cost of scholarly communication above the CPI, rising publishers margins and new requirements for greater access to digital information are creating unprecedented demand on library budgets.

A National Borrowing Scheme for Australian University Students and Staff

The aim of the national borrowing scheme is to facilitate borrowing for staff and students of Australian universities to local and interstate university libraries. The intention has been to achieve a seamless, efficient, easy to administer, equitable and sustainable scheme, easy for the client to use, but backed by appropriate safeguards. While local contracted arrangements will continue the NBS aims to converge principles and practices to enable greater ease of access and to develop systems which go beyond current manual routines. The main goal of the scheme is ease of use for both the borrower and library staff.

The NBS aims at a number of things:

Minimum effort for home and host libraries

Free service to users (other than fees charged as penalties)

Home libraries indemnify host libraries against problems

Service users recorded to assist future planning.

The system is designed in its initial phase to embrace regional arrangements but to seek greater consistency in future stages of development.

Eligibility to borrow will be based on current enrolment or employment and will be interpreted as broadly as possible. Borrowers will be able to enrol 'on the spot' at the host library. In the longer term registration will be completed online.

To avoid unnecessary administrative load and costs, to maximize service delivery to the user, and more importantly, because national co-operation is important to Australian university librarians who strongly support the notion that libraries are pre-competitive, the intention is not to impose a fee. In a similar scheme in the UK no charges are levied against borrowers but net lenders are compensated for the additional workload and resources management strategies through a central government fund managed by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). The Australian National Borrowing Scheme will commence on 1 July 2001 and continue under the proposed model until 31 December 2002. At the end of this period there will be a review of the operation of the scheme to allow time for changes to be implemented through the next stage of its development.

A National Digital Information Resources Site License

Under the auspices of the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee Standing Committee on Information Policy (AVCC SCIP) a Working Party has been established to address the need for a National Site License scheme similar to other site license models developed elsewhere but most particularly in the UK and Canada. The Working Party has been asked to address six terms of reference:

To confirm the range of non-university governmental research institutions to be included in this initiative. The aim of a broadly based model is laudable and highly desirable. Nevertheless a staged approach beginning with the university sector and extending beyond to government departments and agencies at a later date is likely to be the most successful approach, given the difficulties of negotiating across sectors. It would however be necessary to include CSIRO, university teaching hospitals and university affiliates in the first tier negotiations.

To prepare a business case for presentation to all stakeholders, taking into account the Chance for Change recommendation. The Chance to Change report included a recommendation to 'Develop a pilot scheme to test a National Site License concept between higher education institutions, government funded research agencies and publishers in an attempt to keep the price of journals down'. Using the combined purchasing power of all universities and other research libraries the aim is to negotiate the best 'deals' possible. A key reason for the introduction of a National Site License scheme, apart from more efficient resource sharing, is the ability to span the digital divide enabling libraries to move from a predominantly print-based culture to one which is based on electronic resources.

To identify the digital information resources to be acquired as part of the program. This has not proven difficult with members agreeing broadly to a range of expensive datasets which are both primary (full text) and secondary (abstracting and indexing). A pre-condition for agreeing on a range of resources was that CAUL would need to agree that libraries are 'pre-competitive'. If libraries were to argue that the availability of certain high cost resources within their own library contributed to the 'competitive edge' of their institution then it would be difficult to achieve a National Site License which would be available to all members.

To negotiate the price of acquisition for an agreed period. The AVCC appointed a chair of the negotiating team from the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee, supported by the CEO of the AVCC, the President of CAUL or nominee, a representative from CSIRO, and one other person who had been involved with the concept from its earliest stages when the site license concept was considered under the Coalition for Information in Scholarly Communication (CISC). The Chair of the CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee (CEIRC), which has been responsible for CAUL consortium purchases, is also necessarily involved in negotiations.

5 and 6 To establish a funding algorithm, based on the agreed government/institutional matching principles, and to develop a financial model for institutional contributions, taking into account overseas experiences and models. A funding algorithm incorporating such factors as research quantum and total staff and student numbers is currently under consideration by the AVCC Standing Committee on Information Policy.

Progress has also been made in recent times to develop the concept of a national store for research materials under common national protocols. Currently the management of a library store, shared by the Adelaide University and Flinders University, has signed a Heads of Agreement with the CARM (CAVAL Archive and Research Materials) Store in Melbourne. This Heads of Agreement precedes a business plan to develop a single store concept for Australian libraries.

For further information on CAUL initiatives relating to information resources and scholarly communication or any other aspects of the CAUL strategic plan including 'best practice' advocacy and services, readers should visit the CAUL Home Page and strategic plan at http://www.anu.edu.au/caul/caul-doc/strpln99final.html

Helen Hayes, president, CAUL