National Network of Libraries of Medicine

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Pacific Northwest Libraries Join Together for E-journal Access

In December, twenty-five libraries in four states and one province combined their resources to obtain access to a collection of high-quality full-text e-journals. This group subscription - to 140 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins e-journals from Ovid - brings such titles as American Journal of Nursing, Anesthesiology, Annals of Surgery, Circulation, Cancer Nursing, Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Journal of Trauma to the desktops of physicians, hospital employees, and students in health-related programs. Participating libraries are from hospitals and academic institutions, both small and large, in Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and British Columbia. These libraries' users will share three simultaneous accesses to each of the 140 online titles for the upcoming year.

The collaboration is under the auspices of the Washington Medical Librarians Association (WMLA), which began discussions about consortial purchasing in summer, 2001. Libraries from all over the Pacific Northwest were invited in November to participate in this Lippincott Williams & Wilkins e-journal subscription so that sufficient funding could be raised to cover its cost of $90,000. The base price for each library depended on the size of its user population, with some libraries contributing additional funding at the last minute so that the deal could go forward for everyone.

Congratulations to all libraries that have joined together to provide access to this large, rich group of medical and nursing e-journals - and special thanks to those whose extra efforts made the difference at the end! This group purchase will bring experience in e-journal management to some libraries that are new to the provision of online full-text content. It will allow all participating libraries to strengthen their services - again, through the provision of online full-text content. And it will prove a valuable learning experience to our region, as we monitor the collection's use throughout the year to investigate issues such as whether we have purchased sufficient access for all group members, whether group membership comprising differing sizes and types of libraries can be successful, and whether the investment will bring ample returns to all participants.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Ovid are both part of Wolters Kluwer, a multinational information services company that spans the fields of law, business, health, science, and education. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is a major publisher of print and electronic biomedical publications, and Ovid is an information-retrieval vendor that provides access to bibliographic databases, full-text publications, and decision-support tools. Working with these organizations is just the first step in the Washington Medical Librarians Association's exploration of consortial purchasing, an exploration led by Pamela Murray of Northwest Hospital (and WMLA's Continuing Education Committee chair) with the assistance of Susan Barnes of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's Pacific Northwest Region (and WMLA's Secretary) and the invaluable help of Patty Ayala, Database Licensing Consultant at the Washington State Library. During the upcoming year, other vendors and products will be investigated and compared to facilitate libraries' budgeting, planning, and decision making regarding e-content.

If you have questions or want to be informed about further developments contact Susan Barnes at sjbarnes@u.washington.edu

This publication is funded in whole with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. N01-LM-1-3516.

NN/LM | UW HSL | NN/LM PNR | Contact us: nnlm@u.washington.edu | Revised: December 19, 2001

National Network of Libraries of Medicine

nnlm.gov

Pacific Northwest Libraries Join Together for E-journal Access

URL: http://nnlm.gov/pnr/news/200110/ejournals.html