2010 ERA Membership Forum in Melbourne

2010 has begun with a bang. The 2010 ERA Membership forum was held in Melbourne adjacent to the VALA conference. 57 delegates participated in the event which brought together librarians from across the nation, but primarily those in Victoria. A high turnout from public, school and TAFE libraries provided a great opportunity to hear from these sectors about issues in both purchasing electronic resources and delivering services to users in a time of, as the writers say "fiscal restraint".

ERA does offer significant benefits to libraries and vendors and we are maturing in terms of the content offered, business issues such as billing and discussions on new models. The partnership with vendors is also developing and they are committed to supporting its success.

In 2009 ERA achieved:

• 780 libraries and consortia subscribers (total number of libraries (including consortia members) is over 1,200 libraries); and
• 8,800,000 Australians have access to ERA products.

The Forum discussed issues including:

• Business model
• Payments model
• Content and prices
• Promotion and marketing

The ERA Executive Committee will work through the issues identified and we look forward to further discussions with all memebrs and potential members. 

Minutes, papers and presentations from the ERA Membership Forum will be available on the ERA website shortly.  Thanks to all who particiapted.

Roxanne Missingham - Chair, ERA Executive Committee

Trove - future expansion to encompass journal articles and e-resources

Dr Warwick Cathro gave a presentation at the ERA Membership Forum titled 'A model for incoporating e-resources into Trove'. 

Trove is a new discovery experience focused on Australia and Australians. It supplements what search engines provide with reliable information from Australia's memory institutions.  The National Library of Australia is planning an expansion of Trove in the second half of 2010, to encompass journal articles and licensed e-resources.

This expansion will be supported through collaboration with e-resource vendors.  ERA vendors Gale and RMIT Publishing have agreed to participate and several more have expressed interest.

A discussion paper dealing with the user authentication aspects of this expansion is now available on the NLA's wiki.

2010 ERA Product Poll now open

We are once again using the ERA product poll to set pricing for subscriptions taken between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011. The product poll opened on 22 February and will remain open until 19 March.

Libraries that are interested in initiating subscriptions through ERA should complete the online product poll by 19 March to ensure that pricing is set based on level of anticipated take-up. Although the online product polls are not binding, we do need to have a real sense of genuine interest otherwise it will be difficult to confirm the prices in March.

By purchasing through ERA you:

• Benefit from prices negotiated for all Australian libraries;
• Benefit from conditions negotiated including remote access for your users, ability to use material for inter-library lending and virtual reference;
• Purchasing through ERA will result in greater discounts from suppliers in future years;
• Are able to participate in setting future directions for nationally negotiated purchasing.

You can take a look at the product offerings on the ERA website and free product trials are also available by direct arrangement with the participating vendors.

Key Dates to Remember

22 February - 2010 ERA Product Poll opens

19 March - 2010 ERA Product Poll closes

21 April - Library subscription confirmations due

1 July - Financial year subscription cycle commences