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Touchstone for Transformation Annual review 2011-12
SELECTION • NEGOTIATION • RESEARCH • KNOWLEDGE SHARING
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Board of Directors Chair David House Institutional Member Directors Dr Richard Parsons Deborah Shorley Non-Executive Director David Scott Executive Directors Lorraine Estelle Paul Harwood
JISC Collections is a membership organisation that supports the provision of digital materials for education and research in the UK. We are uniquely placed to provide libraries with: • high-quality e-resource collections selected for academic research, teaching and learning; • expertise in negotiating and procurement, within the scholarly communications sector, to save librarians time and money; • best pricing and licensing, using our collective influence to obtain value for money; • environmental scanning and research into innovative resources, licensing models and evaluation tools; • shared knowledge about e-resource acquisition, developments and challenges.
www.jisc-collections.ac.uk
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Contents
A new era … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 2 JISC Executive Secretary’s message … … … … … … … 3 From the Chair … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 4 CEO’s report … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 5 Project highlights … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 6 Financial summary … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 10 Current project list … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 12
“JISC Collections is Stirling’s most important strategic partner for online library services. Their services – such as KB+ and JUSP – provide a step change for us in the management of our everincreasing bundle of e-resources and enable us to understand better how they are being used.” Mark Toole, Director of Information Services, University of Stirling
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A new era This year’s annual review is a little longer than usual. We are celebrating the end of one phase in the existence of JISC Collections, and the beginning of an exciting new phase, as we work more closely with our colleagues in Janet UK to become one organisation: JISC Collections and Janet. This new constitution will enable us to restructure as envisaged in the Wilson review of JISC, and offer a number of benefits to the members of both parties as synergies are created and new service opportunities are identified. The changes will provide JISC Collections with the ability to share the costs of internal infrastructure, ensure greater flexibility for future growth, deliver improved value for money, and provide increased financial sustainability while maintaining stakeholder confidence and ensuring public benefit.
Six years of leadership
Growing knowledge and capacity Better online service
In reflecting on the first phase, from 2006 when JISC Collections was established, (and in line with the nautical theme of our AGM), I must first acknowledge our captain, David House. As Chair, he has calmly guided us through the occasional squall and seen us through choppy waters. We owe much to his leadership and guidance. As a result, we can proudly say that the last six years have seen us develop from a small team licensing content, to an expert organisation providing a shared service to the libraries in our community. Undoubtedly, the integration of our colleagues from Content Complete has been a key success factor, enabling us to build knowledge and capacity in the company, and – we hope – to provide a more comprehensive service to our members. Another major change in this time has been the development of our website, which means that institutions can now complete licensing transactions online, and within their account areas, have access to all the financial information about JISC Collections and NESLi2 agreements.
Project and partnership successes
We have undertaken a number of exciting projects during the last six years. A highlight has been the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP), not least because of the creative and productive collaboration it has stimulated with our colleagues from Mimas, Evidence Base at Birmingham City University and Cranfield University. This has enabled us to build a “one-stop shop” where libraries can view and download their own usage reports from NESLi2 publishers.
Valuable research
In 2009, we completed the JISC national e-books observatory project, which comprised a wealth of research on all aspects of the course text e-books landscape. Since then technology has progressed, but many of the issues remain the same, and the report is still very much used as an authoritative source by all stakeholders. Meanwhile, our research into the issues around Open Access fees, completed in March 2011, is perhaps of even more relevance today as higher education institutions, funders and publishers focus on Gold Open Access in light of the finch Report.
Practical recommendations and insights
OAPEN-UK is a collaborative research project gathering evidence to help stakeholders make informed decisions on the future of open access scholarly monograph publishing. This is still ongoing, and a fascinating project, which we hope will provide practical recommendations and insights.
Maintaining our focus
In December 2012, we will join more closely with Janet, but, as far as our members and our publishing colleagues are concerned, we fully expect that you will see little outward change, as we continue to negotiate on your behalf, provide access to new content and undertake projects and studies that drive the development of licensing and business models in line with user needs, innovative technology and the future of digital content. Thank you for your involvement in JISC Collections – we look forward to continuing to support you in our new guise.
Ongoing support
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A message from JISC fROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Of JISC
Dear Member,
Appetite for change
I know, from my own conversations with our customers and from our internal review of JISC activities, that the agreements and licensing JISC Collections carries out on your behalf are vital to your business. But I am also aware from the research that we have done, talking to many of you reading this and to your colleagues, that there’s a real appetite among you to see a new kind of JISC that is even smarter about responding to your needs.
Thank you for your support
With that in mind, I would like to say how personally grateful I am to JISC Collections members for voting in favour of the legal changes we’re making behind the scenes. These are all considerable steps towards making JISC work even better for you by being more understandable and more relevant to your business.
Business as usual
As we embark on this next phase of JISC Collections, I can absolutely reassure you that the organisation will continue to offer you the kind of excellent service you are used to receiving.
In support of your priorities
It’s clear from members’ responses to this year’s survey that making sensible decisions about financial matters, and identifying cost reductions where you can, is right at the heart of your priorities for 2012–13. As you know, JISC is a part of your sector so we mirror the challenges that you face. I am quite sure you will notice changes at JISC, but I am confident that those changes will help you make even better use of the services offered by JISC Collections and the wider JISC family. With very best wishes Martyn MARTYN HARROW JISC Executive Secretary
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From the Chair DAVID HOUSE Chair of JISC Collections
Preparing to implement the Wilson Review
I am pleased to present our sixth annual review of JISC Collections. Just as our member institutions have been adjusting to a new funding model, so we at JISC Collections have spent much of the last twelve months preparing ourselves for life in a new JISC, following the recommendations of the Wilson Review at the end of 2010.
Recommendations shaped by your feedback
We are grateful to so many of you for the support you have shown for JISC Collections, not just by way of formal responses to the Wilson Review, but since then, by way of verbal or written statements that suggest you consider us and the services we provide, to be important to you. This feedback has reached the highest levels in JISC and I can assure you that the changes that have been made to the legal and governance structure of JISC Collections will not in any way hinder the work we undertake on your behalf.
ÂŁ75m efficiency gains
Developing and improving our services
Launching new services and starting new initiatives
Thank you
Of course, we did not have the luxury of being completely internally focussed during the last 12 months and, once again, our staff have been active in many different areas. We were very pleased to have concluded agreements with two of the leading NESLi2 publishers, which offer our members some price stability over the next few years. Overall, we calculate that we have delivered efficiency gains to the sector of around ÂŁ75m from our NESLi2 and other dataset activities in 2011-12. During the last 12 months, we have continued to develop JUSP, our journal usage statistics portal, and JISC eCollections. These are truly collaborative projects, working with colleagues at EDINA and Mimas and bringing together a range of skills and experiences. feedback from our Advisory Boards and input from many other librarians have also helped us enormously in improving many aspects of the JISC eCollections service. Just as these two services move from introduction to growth and maturity, so we have recently launched our KB+ service, and we have high hopes that this will generate important efficiency savings for our libraries. Looking ahead, the finch Report has given us all a roadmap and the UK is now potentially at the forefront of some of the developments relating to open access publishing. At JISC Collections, we will continue to find ways to support our members in this transition and have a number of initiatives already in train. This is my last report as Chair of JISC Collections. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Board members, all of the staff in the company, and many of you for the support you have provided during my tenure in office; it has been a real pleasure to work with so many enthusiastic, dedicated and professional colleagues.
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CEO’s report LORRAINE ESTELLE CEO, Executive Director of JISC Collections
Affordable renewals
Every year we undertake a survey of our members and ask for their priorities. It is no surprise, in the challenging economic climate, that affordable renewals of existing agreements is top of that list and is therefore at the heart of what we do. We have succeeded in negotiating all renewals within the parameters of 0–3% price increase.
Licences for partner organisations
Another priority, for our higher education members, is the extension of licence agreements to students and staff in partner organisations. This year we have built a tool to help institutions and publishers navigate their way through these often complex situations and are working to include negotiated costs for partner organisations in all our licence agreements.
Reducing duplication of knowledge base effort
We are particularly proud to have been awarded funding from the University Modernisation fund to build Knowledge Base+, a shared service knowledge base for UK academic libraries to support the management of e-resources by the UK academic community.
Supporting further education, adult education, work-based and offender learning
Our further education members, and indeed all further education colleges, are seeing great value in our e-books for fE collection, which continues to be heavily used – teachers and students have now generated 45 million page views. We have also funded access to Primal Pictures, an interactive tool to support teaching and learning in health sciences. The free availability of this resource to fE represents an efficiency gain of over £100,000 so far. With thanks to funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), we are working on extending access of e-books and other resources to students in adult education, work-based learning and offender learning.
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Project highlights Continued evolution of the Big Deal: NESLi2 Minimising price increases
At the time of last year’s Annual Review, our focus was on the re-negotiation of two very significant NESLi2 agreements, where annual expenditure by institutions is very high. With the help and support of our members and by working closely with colleagues at RLUK, we were able to secure agreements with both publishers which recognised the financial uncertainties faced by universities at the time and into the medium-term future.
£6m efficiency savings in 2012
During 2012, we have continued to re-negotiate Big Deal journal agreements on behalf of our members; there are now 939 subscriptions to 19 NESLi2 journal agreements, across which our re-negotiations have delivered 2012 efficiency savings of £6m. (We calculate this figure by looking at the price reductions achieved through negotiation, and a wider consideration of administrative savings.)
New licensing approaches for partner organisations
We have also continued to gather feedback from you, our members – both formally, via surveys and working groups, and informally, via day-to-day interactions with many librarians – and during the last year, this has led us to pay particular attention to the issue of users at partner organisations. We have worked with librarians, publishers and Eduserv to establish a methodology and licensing approach which meets the greater requirement and is transparent to all parties.
Beyond the Big Deal
Earlier this year, Ann Okerson, Senior Advisor on Electronic Strategies for the Center for Research Libraries in North America, made the following observation when contributing to a seemingly never-ending and increasingly philosophical discussion concerning the Big Deal, on a closed discussion list: 1. The Big Deal was an innovation in its time. 2. Publishers took a chance; libraries took a chance. Results were sometimes good and some not so good. I wouldn’t beat up either them or ourselves about it. 3. Publishers are often better strategists than libraries? 4. It’s time for a new look at business models, which will be challenging.
New roles: OA and APCs
Working towards a smooth transition
Whether you agree with Ann’s analysis or not, it is clear that new business models are emerging and, post-finch, JISC Collections is looking at ways that it can support its members in the area of Gold Open Access, notably in relation to article processing charges (APCs) – the amounts charged by publishers and the work involved in administering and paying these charges. As the landscape changes, and models like Gold Open Access become more prominent, we will continue to work with these publishers, and others both within NESLi2 and outside, to ensure that a smooth transition takes place that ensures value-for-money for our members by appropriate fee adjustments.
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Reducing time spent validating data: Knowledge Base+ New service launched
Phase 1 coverage
Phase 2 plans
future benefits
In October 2012, JISC Collections launched Knowledge Base+ (KB+), a new shared service to help institutions manage their e-resources more effectively. KB+ aims to reduce the time that libraries spend correcting and maintaining data about publications, packages, subscriptions, entitlements and licences, to increase the time available for improving services for users. The Phase 1 release of KB+ includes: • Publication Data: title, package, platform and coverage information for all NESLi2, SHEDL and WHEEL agreements (about 12,000 titles); • Subscription Information for those agreements: including renewal dates and notice periods. Where available, we have included information on institutional participation in those agreements and local institutional entitlements; institutions can also amend this information themselves; • Licence Information associated with those agreements: for example, covering walk-in users, course packs, post-cancellation and partner access. Phase 2 will see developments including: • More data, with a particular focus on those resources which haven’t been negotiated by JISC Collections; • Improved data management (e.g. synchronisation across multiple sources); • Support for major processes – renewals, cancellations etc – and multi-year representation of that information; • Consortia support; • Collation of historical entitlement and licence information; • full integration of the licence comparison tool. In addition to saving time and cost, JISC Collections hopes that KB+ will also provide the following benefits: • Improving the reliability of the e-library; • Increasing the return on investment in vendor knowledge bases; • Putting institutions in control of their data across different vendor systems and services.
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Project highlights Lowering the barriers to using games in colleges Exploring current licensing of games and interactive software
We have begun to explore business models that might enable further education colleges to make commercially created games and interactive software freely available to students. The first phase of the project involved interviews with 25 colleges and 13 games suppliers, to assess the extent to which colleges already purchase or subscribe to such software to support teaching and learning, and their views of the business models involved. Suppliers were asked about licensing to colleges and the possible barriers to selling into the fE sector. Interviewees were also asked whether the involvement of JISC Collections in licensing games and software could be beneficial.
Current uptake is low
The interviews showed that the extent of use of games across colleges is small, for a variety of reasons including, for example, the lack of time for teaching staff to explore and evaluate the use of games, and a relatively small number of colleges having someone coordinating e-learning across the college. Use of games consoles was the game activity most frequently mentioned by colleges. Other games-based activities included simulation, interactive software, virtual worlds and augmented reality.
Potential role for JISC Collections
The pricing models in use between colleges and suppliers were generally based on the purchase of software and hardware, site licences and annual subscriptions. The majority of both suppliers and colleges felt that there could be a role for JISC Collections in supporting the licensing of games.
Pilot project
In 2013, we will run a pilot with a small number of suppliers, mainly in the fields of simulation and virtual worlds. Their interactive software-based and online resources will be included in our online catalogue, allowing fE and HE institutions to review the resources and participate in agreements. We will assess the success of this pilot with a view to extending the availability of appropriate interactive educational and training software and online resources.
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Community-led continuous improvement: JISC eCollections Successful launch
JISC eCollections, launched in August 2011, now has over 180 subscribers. The service comprises three distinct platforms: • JISC MediaHub – a collection of news film, documentary, images and sound files; • JISC Journals Archive – a fixed collection of hundreds of journal archives under one search interface; • JISC Historic Books – the original scanned images and searchable text of over 350,000 books published between 1475 and 1900.
Transparent, affordable pricing
Prices have been carefully considered to ensure they are affordable across the education sector, for example to further Education colleges (with whom JISC MediaHub in particular has proved popular, while JISC Journals Archive is also proving useful as fE colleges start to teach and provide resources for higher level courses). for Higher Education institutions, a subscription to JISC eCollections costs less than subscribing to equivalent databases, thus saving the whole community money.
Community supervision
Since launch, we have continued to enhance the platforms and have sought user input to guide this process. Each platform has an Advisory Board, comprising academics and librarians, focussed on the use and promotion of the service. Each group meets two or three times a year, and assists in testing service enhancements, as well as contributing specialist expertise.
Ongoing enhancement
The majority of feedback and development in 2011-12 has been concentrated on JISC Historic Books; for many members, this platform replaces existing services with which users had achieved a certain level of familiarity. During the second year of JISC eCollections, we will launch many new features, and new content including 200,000 19th century book images from the Bodleian Library. This will make JISC Historic Books a unique resource, with around half a million historic books searchable in one increasingly user-friendly interface.
Discovery and integration
Discovery and integration with other systems are key to the success of JISC eCollections, and we are supporting them in as many ways as possible. for example, JISC Journal Archives is linked to the major link resolvers used by universities, allowing their users to find and link to articles easily.
Shortlisted for IT award
Both JISC Historic Books and JISC Journal Archives have been shortlisted in the “Best not for profit IT project” category of the UK IT Industry Awards. Winners will be announced in November 2012 – wish us luck!
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Financial summary Summarised accounts
The summarised financial information below is extracted from the full statutory financial statements that can be obtained from https:// www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Publications. The financial statements were approved by the Board of Management and signed on 22nd October 2012. The Statutory financial statements, on which the auditors Knox Cropper gave an unqualified audit report on 22nd October 2012, will be submitted to Companies House within the appropriate timescales.
Auditor’s report
We have examined the summarised financial information set out in these pages and we have carried out the procedures we considered necessary to ascertain whether they are consistent with the full financial statements from which they have been prepared. In our opinion, the summarised financial statements are consistent with the full financial statements for the year ended 31st July 2012. Knox Cropper 8/9 Well Court London EC4M 9DN
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Profit and Loss Account for the Year Ended 31 July 2012 2012 Total £ Turnover £19,860,749 Cost of Sales (£17,885,566) ____________ Gross Profit £1,975,183 (£1,126,176) Administrative Expenses ____________
2011 Total £ £12,748,658 _(£10,842,293) ___________ £1,906,365
Operating Profit Interest receivable Profit/(Loss) of associated company
£849,007 £67,461 £10,555 ____________
£749,693 £41,182 ____________
Profit on Ordinary Activities before taxation £927,023 Taxation on profit on ordinary activities (£21,349) ____________ Retained Profit for the financial period £905,674 ____________ ____________
£790,875
__(£1,156,672) __________
(£21,563) ____________ £769,312 ___________ __________ ___
Balance Sheet at 31 July 2012 2012 Group 2012 Parent 2011 Group £ £ £ FIXED ASSETS Intangible Assets £10,132,927 £10,132,927 £10,330,054 Tangible Assets £66,292 £65,617 £89,595 Investments £10,555 £30,605 ___________ ____________ _ __________ £10,209,774 £10,229,149 £10,419,649 CURRENT ASSETS Debtors £9,458,509 £9,457,701 £4,292,634 £8,966,043 £8,940,838 £8,678,289 Cash at Bank and in Hand ___________ ____________ _ __________ £18,424,552 £18,398,539 £12,970,923 ___________ ____________ _ __________
2011 Parent £ £10,330,054 £88,413 £30,605 ____________ £10,449,072 £4,290,508 £8,655,000 ____________ £12,945,508 ____________
CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year (£15,967,578) (£15,959,986) (£11,598,016) (£11,593,911) ___________ ____________ _ __________ ____________ NET CURRENT ASSETS £2,456,974 £2,438,553 £1,372,907 £1,351,597 ___________ ____________ _ __________ ____________ TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES £12,666,748 £12,667,702 £11,792,556 £11,800,669 CREDITORS (£7,458,833) (£7,490,316) Amounts falling due after one year ___________ __(£7,458,832) __________ _ (£7,490,315) __________ ____________ £5,207,915 £5,208,870 £4,302,241 £4,310,353 ___________ ___ __ __________ ____________ ___________ ___________ __________ __________ ____________ CAPITAL AND RESERVES £5,207,915 £5,208,870 £4,302,241 £4,310,353 Profit and Loss Account ___________ ____________ _ __________ ____________ £5,207,915 £5,208,870 £4,302,241 £4,310,353 ___________ ___ __ __________ ____________ ___________ ___________ __________ __________ ____________
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Current projects Exploring and developing effective and sustainable business models for e-resources E-books for FE fe.jiscebooks.org E-books for Skills (ACLE and WBL) *new* OAPEN-UK oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org PublishOER www.medev.ac.uk/blog/suzannes-blog/2012/aug/22/publishoer-developingdetailed-case-studies-to-inform-policy-development/ Open Access Fees Project www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/OA-fees-final-Report/ Games Pilot for FE *new*
Working collaboratively to widen and extend licensing and access management Embedding access management for adult community learning and work-based learning Academic Health Science Centres: pilot report www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/AHSC-Pilot-Report-August-2012/ Partner Organisations: briefing for librarians www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/partnerorganisations/
Examining the needs of libraries, students and researchers to inform resource development and licensing UK Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/ukscholarlyreadingreport/ Society Journal Publishing Transfer: guidelines to help achieve a successful transition www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/Society-Publishing-Transfering-Journals/
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Developing innovative tools and technology to support efficient procurement KnowledgeBase+ www.kbplus.ac.uk/ Entitlement Registry Project www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/entitlementregistryreport/ Electronic Licence Comparison and Analysis Tool: El-CAT www.jisc-elcat.com/ Academic Database Assessment Tool: ADAT www.jisc-adat.com/ Journal Usage Statistics Portal: JUSP www.jusp.mimas.ac.uk/
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For more information, or to view complete financial statements: www.jisc-collections.ac.uk JISC Collections is the trading name for the JISC Content Procurement Company Limited. JISC Collections, Brettenham House, 5 Lancaster Place, London WC2E 7EN Tel: +44 (0)20 3006 6000 n Web: www.jisc-collections.ac.uk n Email: help@jisc-collections.ac.uk