Hello KYVL users,
In my last post, I told you about the budget deficit, and the KYVL Collections Workgroup Database Reduction Report presented to the Virtual Library Advisory Committee. The Collections Workgroup recommended that KYVL members be charged a one-time additional fee to cover the deficit, rather than make cuts to the research databases. A subcommittee was formed to determine possible fee scenarios.
The subcommittee ran 20 different scenarios, rated five as possibilities with two brought forward as the most viable. The subcommittee reviewed the formulas and specifically the two presented to the Virtual Library Advisory Committee. VLAC discussed many of the scenarios, with special attention to the two presented. The two formulas presented were:
Scenario R – Tiered FTE & Collections (Option H), $350 to Special Libraries [Minimum $100; Maximum $16,000]
Scenario S – 33% split based on Academic & Public Libraries FTE, Collections Budget, & Usage, $350 to Special Libraries
Many will remember when we had to reduce courier service by about $85,000 in fiscal years 03-04, 04-05 and 05-06. We cut the service to about 300 pickups per week compared to the previous level of 445 stops. This was devastating to our members. Governor Fletcher helped to restore KYVL’s courier service back to its original level in FY06-07 and we were able to take the service back to 445 stops. Since then, we have avoided making cuts to the courier service, despite $40,000 annually in increases, and have allowed KYVL’s research database collection to absorb the budget cuts.
Courier usage and ILL transactions increase each year, but the same is true of research database usage. Without additional fees, KYVL would have to cancel PscyINFO for everyone but postsecondary and we would also lose the two ProQuest databases: Alt-Press Watch and Career & Technical. Therefore, VLAC members selected Scenario R and voted to implement that formula in invoicing members an additional amount to cover the deficit and keep the research database collection intact.
Because our largest contract (EBSCO) spans two fiscal years, we can allow members some time to pay the FY2009-10 invoice. EBSCO and ProQuest both have indicated they would work with us on billing and payment plans to allow members time to process the KYVL invoice. All vendors have been great to work with and all but EBSCO staying at the 30% reduction they applied last fiscal year. EBSCO has been able to keep their charge the same as last year and even APA has reduced the PsycINFO amount, an unprecedented action for both these vendors.
Today, members received a spreadsheet detailing all scenarios presented, as well as base data of FTE, collections budget, searches, FY08-09 KYVL fee, the 2009 addtional fee, and the new FY2009-10 KYVL fee. If you are the director, dean or manager of a KYVL member organization or library, and you have not received the recent emails, please contact me.
The public universities, the community & technical colleges and the public libraries have typically been billed by OCLC/Lyrasis for their KYVL membership. Since KYVL inherited the old KLN fee structure, we have kept that process the same. KYVL invoices our partner agencies, special libraries and academic members and the independent K12 members.
The Deficit Subcommittee met many times over the few weeks between VLAC meetings and put in a considerable number of hours together and independently to do the analysis and create the scenarios. They are:
Charlene Davis, KDLA – Chair, Collections Workgroup
Leoma Dunn, Thomas More College – Collections Workgroup and AIKCU
John Stemmer, Bellarmine University – FoKAL and AIKCU
Enid Wohlstein, KYVL
We are excited about the future as we develop our strategic plan to guide us through the next three years. The new strategic plan will likely contain several recommendations regarding evaluation of the cost recovery and member contribution model. As always, feedback from members and users is appreciated.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Also, you may wish to contact your VLAC representative. The member list is located at http://www.kyvl.org/wiki/vlac/vlacmembers/
Thank you,
Enid
KYVL Director