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    Assessing effectiveness of communication and collaboration platforms at USMAI partner campuses
    (2017-06-08) Dahl, David; Hanson, Heidi; Koivisto, Joseph
    The USMAI library consortium — originally formed to capitalize on cooperative resource sharing — provides partner institutions with a knowledge-sharing network and a pool of talented, insightful collaborators. By combining a range of perspectives, practices, and localized expertise, consortial partners have become better equipped to address the individual needs of their campus community while also gaining increased library domain knowledge through collaborative engagement and collegial correspondence. While acknowledging this noble mission, the authors of this proposal posed a question to the USMAI consortium: do the communication and collaboration platforms used among consortial partners help enhance this aim, or do they rather serve as a stumbling block to an otherwise motivated community of peers? During the summer and fall of 2016, the project team conducted a series of surveys, meetings, and focus groups to determine the effectiveness of the variety of tools available to the consortium for communication and collaboration purposes, such as the USMAI web sites, web conferencing platforms (e.g., GoToMeeting), and the USMAICollaborates Google site. In this presentation, the project team will describe the motivating factors for this assessment, an overview of the planning and execution of our data collection activities, and a report of our findings on the user assessment of tool effectiveness and usability. The authors will also lay out a series of recommendations for enhanced platform development that have been submitted to the USMAI executive leadership and the Council of Library Directors.
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    A Place at the Table: Health Sciences Librarians and Consortial E-Book DDA Selection, Purchasing, and Management
    (2015-05-17) Douglas, C. Steven; Harrington, Eileen G.
    Objectives: The University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium consists of the 16 libraries from Maryland’s diverse public universities and colleges, including a research university, a distance education university, a liberal arts college, professional schools in law and the health sciences, HBCU institutions, and two system centers. A pilot was implemented to explore the feasibility of a joint demand driven acquisition (DDA) e-book model. Methods: A committee of ten—including the collection manager from the health sciences library and a health sciences librarian from one of the system centers—convened to design and manage the pilot. The consortium leadership provided a budget of $100,000, and the committee selected a broad profile, focusing on the subject areas offered at the system centers, which offer several interdisciplinary and inter-institutional courses. One goal was to provide greater equity in access to resources across institutions. The committee decided to pilot a novel consortial DDA model that limited the lending of each purchased book rather than providing a price multiplier. A simple questionnaire was devised to measure participation by campus. Results: The pilot went live in August 2013 with an initial load of 6560 titles into USMAI’s shared catalog. The original model was to pay for 6 short term loans and purchase the book at print list price on the 7th. A purchase entitled the consortium to 14 short term loans per year with an additional copy being purchased at print list price on the 15th. Over the course of the year the committee removed certain titles from publishers who demanded exorbitant increases in the cost of short term loans and added others. Currently the shared DDA collection contains 25,077 titles. An analysis of usage shows that the users of all libraries in the system have benefited from the program, and funding for the pilot was approved for a second year. Conclusions: A consortial e-book DDA program can be a cost-effective way of equitably increasing access to a greater number of resources for library users. As e-book models for libraries continue to evolve it is vital that libraries work with publishers to design systems that are mutually beneficial. It is our hope that other consortia will adopt this type of model so that it will continue to be viable in the marketplace.