This month KYVL is sponsoring two training sessions covering all features, bells, and whistles of Grolier Online. These sessions are designed specifically for KYVL membership and are available free of charge.
We have two sessions available at this time:
Visit our Training Page for more information about available sessions and how to sign up!
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
We have a shortfall in our budget this fiscal year. That’s the bad news upfront. Recently, the KYVL Collections Workgroup presented a report to the Virtual Library Advisory Committee with recommendations regarding our licensed database collection in anticipation of response to budget cuts. I would like to provide you an update on the current state of our budget, talk about the Collections Workgroup report, and tell you about next steps.
As a reminder, in Fiscal Year 2008-09, KYVL resources were reduced by 30% due to budget cuts over two fiscal years and the indirect impact of the cuts leading to the contribution reduction of the Ky. Dept. for Libraries and Archives. Through negotiations and some vendors dropping fees by 30% and unfortunately, the cancelling of licensed resources, we met the shortfall of FY08-09.
For Fiscal Year 2009-10, the Commonwealth had a reported $1 billion shortfall. When the fiscal year began July 1, 2009, it was as yet unknown what the budget impact would be to state agencies and subsequently, to KYVL. In anticipation of reductions, the KYVL Collections Workgroup was put into service in May to begin their analysis. When the Collections Workgroup began meeting, it was undetermined if KYVL would be allocated the full 4% as that is at the discretion of CPE, since KYVL is a department of the Council on Postsecondary Education.
The reduction was announced Aug 28, effective retrospective to July 1, 2009 (the beginning of our fiscal year), but we didn’t know exactly what that meant for KYVL till mid-October. On 16 October, we determined that the 4% reduction to the Council on Postsecondary Budget would result in a deficit of $148,514. Around that same date, EBSCO/APA came back with a further reduced amount for the PsycINFO product.
What occurred at the VLAC meeting on 19 October?
Sheree Williams gave an update of the reV@10 (reVisioning at 10 Years) Strategic Planning initiative. Information on the planning can be found at http://www.kyvl.org/wiki/revisioningat10years/ or you can contact me directly.
Charlene Davis, as the workgroup chair, presented the Database Reduction Plan from the KYVL Collections Workgroup. Charlene reiterated, on behalf of the Collections Workgroup, the difficulty of the charge and gave an overview of the report, and outlined the recommendations. [A public version of the report will be posted to our website with the VLAC meeting minutes.]
Quotations from the report are marked by **** at the beginning and end of each excerpt.
**** “This is very first time that we have even entertained the possibility of disenfranchising user communities. It was extremely painful to witness even a hint of dismantling our long held belief and philosophical foundation commitment to a true core collection of databases available to everyone in Kentucky regardless of who they were or how they were identified. It should also be noted that during the KYVL rev@10 process that the databases were consistently and overwhelmingly identified as a strength of KYVL.” ****
The Recommendations are:
**** “The Work Group recommended that KYVL retain all databases in the core collection and increase fees to the members to make up the possible $150,000 shortfall.
Should this recommendation be unacceptable to VLAC and should the vendors not reduce their fees further to meet the needed reduction, the Work Group under extreme duress would offer the possibility of canceling the ProQuest AltWatch and Career and Technical databases with the knowledge that doing so during the semester will cause students who are relying upon them for projects great hardship. Because canceling these databases…will not be adequate to meet the $150,000 target, the only other option left to the Work Group was to actually entertain the option of disenfranchising user communities. ….Access to PsycINFO would be restricted to Postsecondary Institutions Only (includes state supported, AIKCU, and Special Academics.) This is an exceptionally onerous option and a clear violation of the tenets upon which KYVL was founded; e.g., in this instance access to all databases by all citizens. These two actions… (result in the savings needed.)” ****
To generate discussion and gauge interest, I presented a few potential scenarios for one-time allocations, based on the primary recommendation from the Collections Workgroup that member fees be increased to cover the funding deficit. I also pointed out some highlights from the “Review of Consortial Funding and Member Fees/Oct 2009” document I had sent to VLAC regarding other consortia handling of member and resource fees, deficits and funding models.
Member fees, cost-sharing and cost-recovery have been discussed at length during the strategic planning process by members, the Full Planning Team and the Core Team and has been a recurring theme in survey and focus group feedback. I stated that we should anticipate the new strategic plan will contain several recommendations regarding evaluation of the cost recovery and member contribution model with the intent of increasing revenue collected by KYVL. Addressing the deficit with analysis of existing fees and introducing a scenario for a one-time premium would be a first step towards a future change in our member fee structure.
The Virtual Library Advisory Committee needed additional time to digest the Collections Workgroup report and requested further investigation of scenarios for deficit coverage.
What are the next steps?
On 19 October, VLAC created a subcommittee to review the example scenarios, validate or create scenarios and bring back recommendations for VLAC’s next meeting on 13 November.
Virtual Library Advisory Committee’s Deficit/Fees Subcommittee is as follows:
Charlene Davis, KDLA (Collections Workgroup, Chair)
Leoma Dunn, Thomas More College (Collections Workgroup)
John Stemmer, Bellarmine University (FoKAL)
Enid Wohlstein, KYVL
The subcommittee report was sent 9 November to VLAC to give them time to review it. The report contained 20 different scenarios, five (5) of which were recommended with two (2) brought forward as the most viable for consideration.
KYVL/CPE will cover the subscriptions as is through Dec. 2009. Should VLAC accept a scenario to increase member fees, consideration would be given for members who need time to rework budgets, reallocate funds, etc..
The Collections Workgroup is to be commended for their expertise, for the hours committed and given with full attention and consideration, and for taking on such a difficult task.
Collections Workgroup:
Charlene Davis, Kentucky Dept. for Libraries and Archives, Chair
Linda Bartnik, Murray State University
Charles Brown, Sullivan University
Bryan Carson, Western Kentucky University
Ida Cornett, Lexington Public Library
Leoma Dunn, Thomas More College
Lesley Jackson Centre College
Betsy Hughes, KYVL
Tom Kmetz, Morehead State University
Margaret Foote, Eastern Kentucky University
James Manasco, University of Louisville
Lois Schultz, Northern Kentucky University
Lynda Short, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
Debbra Tate, Kentucky State University
Cecelia Tavares, Jefferson County Public Schools
Mary Beth Thomson University of Kentucky
Sheree Williams, Jefferson Community and Technical College
Enid Wohlstein, KYVL
About the Virtual Library Advisory Committee meetings:
Every meeting is public. You are welcome to dial in to participate or attend in person. For the 13 Nov. meeting, contact us for the dial-in number. We will meet in Room A, at the Council on Postsecondary Education office in Frankfort. Directions and the address can be found at http://cpe.ky.gov/about/directions.htm. Meeting minutes from the 10/19/09 meeting are not yet available as VLAC will accept the final minutes at their next meeting, which is the 13th of November.
You can also contact your representative on VLAC. Each member represents not only their institution or library but also a particular user group. The VLAC wiki lists meetings, members, etc. at http://www.kyvl.org/wiki/vlac/
Any KYVL member is welcome to a copy of the report, with the stipulation that vendor contract amounts and database costs be kept confidential and not posted or disclosed publicly. Please contact me.
Thank you for your time. We value our members/partners, their participation in KYVL, and support of the ideals which drive us and the efforts of the workgroups. I am always open to your feedback, comments and requests.
Best regards,
Enid
Periodically, I provide updates on KYVL activities to various constituent groups. We’ve had a busy summer and fall. I would like to highlight some projects and activities.
Fall conferences – KLA/KSMA and Convergence Conference
reVisioning at 10 Years [reV@10] Strategic Planning
Courier and Database Usage Statistics:
Collections Workgroup:
Kyleidoscope – http://kdl.kyvl.org/kyleidoscope.htm
Kentuckiana Digital Library – http://kdl.kyvl.org/
There will be more information coming shortly regarding the KYVL budget and collections [ie. the core databases]. A public version of the Collections Workgroup report has been created and will be emailed to the membership this week. The Deficit/Fees Subcommittee will be presenting their recommendations to VLAC on 13 November.
Feel free to contact us with questions on any of the above, or if you need training, have “how to” questions and so on. As always, please share your stories with us — How do you use KYVL?
Have a great day!
