[WEB4LIB] Impact of statewide database deals?

[Phillip B. Whitford]

At this public library in North Carolina the state's NCLive program has made
some impact on the electronic resources we normally buy but it's not been as
big as we had hoped.  We had hoped to substantially reduce our expenditures
for electronic resources but in fact we have only been able to eliminate two
of our own subscriptions.  NCLive has been a wonderful supplement to the
resources we acquire on our own but it has not replaced them.


Phillip B. Whitford
Braswell Memorial Library
344 Falls Rd, Rocky Mount, NC 27804
252-442-1951
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Braswell Library
-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Sloan, Bernie
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 4:20 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Impact of statewide database deals?



It's becoming relatively common lately for a state to provide central
funding for access to full text databases for all the state's residents.
Programs like LiLI in Idaho (http://www.lili.org/), Pioneer in Utah
(http://pioneer.lib.ut.us/), Indiana's Inspire
(http://www.inspire-indiana.net/), and the Kentucky Virtual Library
(http://www.kyvl.org/) are just a few examples of such programs. Other
programs offer widespread access to a segment of a state's library
community, e.g., the Illinois Digital Academic Library
(http://www.idal.illinois.edu/) offers centrally funded full text databases
to faculty, staff and students at 150 Illinois colleges and universities.

Projects like these have been going on for a number of years now, and I am
curious about how the availablity of such "free" full text resources has
impacted local library electronic resource selection, and how it has
impacted the way full text database aggregators do business.

I'd really be interested in hearing from librarians and vendors about how
the availablity of "free" full text resources has changed the electronic
resources landscape.

Thanks!

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax:     (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu