Call to Action!

[cflora]

Committee members,

I have been remiss in following up on our committee's action items from our last meeting on 7/28/15. If you recall, we were to determine the criteria and parameters for the custom reports that will be used to generate lists of ebooks for possible deletion. Supposedly we should have determined this criteria by the end of September. Oops! Eh, we're all busy. So, now that we have a reminder, let's start brainstorming.

I'm thinking for criteria, if by call #:
Computer and nursing related titles older than five years or with subsequent editions...

Others?

[ecrane]

I might expand what you've mentioned to the sciences as well.

Do we also want to look at what hasn't seen any use? At my previous institution, we would look at titles that had been in the collection for at least 18 months but had seen no use (meaning not even a free browse) and remove those. Then you have to stop them from getting added all over again, though.

I don't know if EBL can limit by STL %, but we could say we don't want any content from publishers with an STL % over 30% or something like that.

-Erin Crane

[jdessino]

Since I am not officially a member of this committee, I have a few questions/comments

1. Are you developing criteria for DDA project(s) or for owned ebook titles? I think the latter is the crucial part needing maintenance ASAP.
2. While I think creating general criteria is definitely needed, has the committee considered how the the criteria will be applied? for instance, starting with specific ebook collections or doing it by whatever meets the criteria across collections?
3. I agree with Crystal completely that we need to get rid of older editions, especially in the health sciences, unless there is some specific reason why a particular older edition is valuable.
4. Is the committee planning to have the items removed from the vendor's platform as well?

[ecrane]

Thank you, Jacque!! I just realized I assumed this was referring to EBL specifically, but I don't think that that's the case. My thoughts were just about EBL.

Thinking more broadly, low or no use over a span of time could still be a criterion. That's certainly something we take into consideration with print books, though in those cases we have space concerns as well. Space isn't an issue with e-books but potentially cluttering up search results with irrelevant content would become an issue.

[cflora]

We are looking at this holistically, not just EBL. So, yes, this applies to all owned collections. There are several issues surrounding the application of the criteria and how the items will be deleted. We're starting with overall criteria for all collections and then will work with Gene and Charles to further flesh out specifics. As for removing them from the vendor platform, I don't believe we have discussed that yet, so this is a good question. Thanks, Jacque!

Erin--I like the idea of weeding ebooks like we do print. Good idea!

[cflora]

Does anyone else have additional criteria they would like to add? I'm thinking our next step may be to meet via conference call again. Thoughts? Before winter break, or afterwards?

[ecrane]

Either would work for me, but maybe after at this point? I assume a lot of us take a lot of leave at this time of year.

[cflora]

We can definitely do after. I'll email the committee directly with a Doodle poll to schedule a date.