SCELC Collaborative Collections Program

The JSTOR EBA EBook program offers member libraries unlimited access to more than 47,000 high-quality, DRM-free EBooks from approximately 54 publishers. Participants commit to a three-year recurring purchase which grants users access to a high quality EBook collection covering a broad range of subjects, content levels, and publishers, while minimizing duplication with local collections.

An evidence-based purchase model allows institutions to gain access to a large quantity of titles for the entire three year period, before selecting titles to convert to perpetual access. SCELC provides usage reports to assist participating institutions in prioritizing shared titles to retain after the end of the program, and discounted pricing is available for additional individual purchases from within the collection. After each year of the three year program, participants apply their entire annual fee to the purchase of deeply-discounted individual titles they select for perpetual access for their institution.

In June 2018 the SCELC board approved funding for a three year collaborative collection pilot program. A Goals and Guidelines document was cooperatively developed, which uncovered areas of disagreement and ensured alignment as the steering committee embraced shared challenges. Diverse representation and persistence enabled the committee to move past the downsides of a shared ownership model and create shared access with individualized selection & ownership. Shared access supports assessment of shared collection value across the diversity of SCELC libraries without creating the problems of a "one size fits few" model.

The Collaborative Collections Steering Committee led an exhaustive membership-driven Request for Proposal and vendor selection process which leveraged its members' expertise to analyze and summarize proposals for member feedback. In March 2019 the committee selected the JSTOR EBA collection as its first offer to SCELC members.

101 member libraries seriously considered participation, and 69 institutions accepted the Collaborative Collection offer. The collection was made available in July 2019, allowing participants to share access to 48,000+ EBooks. In May 2020, participating libraries selected the titles they wished to purchase based on their patrons’ first year of usage. 3,056 EBooks were purchased across 69 unique ordering profiles via this first-of-its-kind centrally-managed individualized purchasing program. This cycle will repeat for two more years, until the initial JSTOR EBA offer is completed in July 2022.

• Simplify, streamline, and improve the annual selection process.
• Provide consortia-wide usage analysis.