Felix Semenovich Voroysky: The 90-th anniversary

The article is dedicated to the 90-th anniversary of Felix S. Voroysky, Candidate of Science in Engineering, Professor, pedagogue, naval officer, retired captain II rank, and an outstanding expert in library and information automation (1931–2008). His life stages, including his service in the navy, jobs in research institutes, information organizations and libraries, participation in library consortia and their projects of corporate e-catalogs and e-libraries, as well as his pedagogical activities, are discussed. The whole spectrum of his academic interests is reflected in 272 publications with many of them still popular after the years gone and are read when training library specialists in structure and technologies of library and information processes. Felix S. Voroysky served on the organizing committees of the largest professional international forums “Crimea” and “LIBCOM” also chairing the section “Automated and corporate library systems and technologies”.

Enabling smaller independent publishers to participate in Open Access transformative arrangements

See RECORDING. Independent Society Publishers and Academic Publishers would like to enable Open Access transformative agreements, but find it difficult to do this at scale, especially when each library consortia requires different licence agreements, data and workflows. This project is to create shared principles, a model licence, a data template and minimum workflows, so that small publishers, libraries and library consortia can then use them to more easily conclude Open Access agreements.

Free Lunch? Vendor Offers during COVID-19

Academic libraries received numerous free offers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing business literature suggests that there are benefits and costs associated with free offers for both the businesses that provide them and their customers. This study analyzes the free offers received during a three-month period at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The author monitored direct offers from vendors, [email protected], information obtained from peers, and publicly available data from the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). The offers that would normally require paid institutional subscriptions were included in the study. Databases were the largest offer category (41%), followed-by e-books (20%). Most (76%) required registration by library representatives, allowing vendors to track usage data. Only a small portion (8%) of these free offers was already held at the study site, Penn State University Libraries (PSUL). The implication might be that most of the offers were either new, not high-priority or not affordable for PSUL. The findings of this study suggest free offers provide intangible value for both libraries and vendors that cannot be measured through cost-per-use data analysis. For example, libraries gained opportunities to trial new products without any risk, temporarily expand their collections, and help users during the crisis when access to the library buildings was disrupted. Vendors increased product visibility, gained customer information and usage data, identified potential customers, and created goodwill with the library community. This study is relevant to business librarianship not only because these free offers included business and related disciplines but also because some business librarians engage with vendor relations and need to understand different business models including free offers.

The evolution and revision of big deals: a review from the perspective of libraries

We study the phenomenon of the big deal, a subscription model for scientific journals that emerged at the turn of the millennium aimed especially at library consortia, which were offered the opportunity to exponentially increase their access to scientific information, thus breaking the previous trend of continuous cuts to the collections of the periodicals available in libraries. Its strengths, the expansion of the availability of content, and its impact on the diversification of use and the productivity of researchers are presented herein. Likewise, its weaknesses are highlighted, such as the constant increase in prices and the finding of the concentration of use in a limited set of content. These disadvantages have led to questioning and resulted in the evaluation of big deals, a search for alternatives, and cancellations in times of crisis. In recent years, the latter have been linked to the perception that the cost–benefit balance of big deals has been altered by the proliferation of open-access content. Finally, we address the revision of the traditional big deal through transformative agreements where subscription costs are offset by publication costs, which are intended to be a mechanism to accelerate the transition to open access.

Administration in Theological Libraries

Models for the administration of theological libraries vary significantly based on size, location, culture, and context. Commonly, theological libraries must develop an internal administration of policies, procedures, and goals in relation to collection management, staffing/volunteers, planning, reporting, and budget, as well as administer external relationships to a broader institution, library consortia, and other stakeholders. The targeted audience for this volume includes those starting a new theology library or beginning a new position in administration with principles relevant to established libraries and library directors.

Price transparency project: Informing the development of Plan S

This article reports on the outcome of a project launched in September 2019 to develop an approach to implementing the price transparency principle of Plan S. It was clear from the outset that mobilising stakeholder engagement and support would be crucial to success. It was also clear that this would be a challenge. While funders, libraries, and library consortia were broadly supportive of the work, many publishers – both mixed model and OA-only – expressed significant concerns. A framework consisting of title, contextual, and price metadata emerged and is described within.

Economics of Resource Sharing via Library Consortia

The chapter seeks to discuss the role played by library consortia in resource sharing among libraries, media organizations, and archives. It will outline the existing models that are functioning effectively especially in the developing countries and discuss the best practices. The target audience being libraries, archives, and media. While unravelling the economics of resources sharing among the information players, the chapter will address the challenges and opportunities in supporting research, teaching, and learning. The value of the book chapter is that it will give an insight into the development of library consortia and their significance as opportunities to provide equal access to research in libraries, archives, and media. The chapter will also provide a comprehensive comparison between library consortia in developing countries and developed countries highlighting how resource sharing in developing countries has helped to bridge the gap of information access, thereby showing progressive development.