This initiative has come from a group of Cambridge College librarians whose resource provision is affected by space and budgetary constraints. The collection has been targeted to meet undergraduate demand for key texts in all subjects taught in the Tripos and has been formed following negotiation by NetLibrary with the five publishers whose titles are most frequently borrowed from College libraries. NetLibrary was selected as supplier of the pilot because of suitability of their catalogue, delivery method and price. They already supply eBooks to universities such as UCL, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the North West Academic Libraries consortium (NOWAL).
"We are truly pleased to be partnering with the University of Cambridge to provide students and faculty with online access to key texts,” said Rich Rosy, Vice President of eContent for NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. “NetLibrary and OCLC are always looking for innovative ways to support the academic library community. After discussions with College Librarians, we were able to define requirements for the trial and worked directly with key publishers including Cambridge University Press, The MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishing and Taylor & Francis to secure distribution rights for the most frequently used titles.”
This agreement is for a trial period that began in January 2006 and the cost of the subscription has been met by a generous donation from Professor Robert Z. Aliber, of St John's College, Emeritus Professor of International Economics and Finance, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, and contributions from the colleges represented by the project team (Clare, Lucy Cavendish, Queens', St John's, Selwyn and Trinity).
During the trial year the project team will monitor the project through usage statistics and user surveys. Consultations will also take place with colleagues in College, Faculty and Departmental libraries as well as the University Library. An evaluation report will be prepared in Autumn 2006.
For more information, please contact OCLC PICA Communications by e-mail or by telephone at +31-(0)71-5246500.
