Collections and Discovery

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Email: Streaming Media platforms reminder

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder email to faculty using streaming media in their courses. As previously announced, the USF Libraries has discontinued leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms. Leased titles that are currently active on the two platforms will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time. Titles leased on the Kanopy and Swank platforms will be expiring throughout the next 6 months. Please pay close attention to expiration dates of video titles as you prepare your spring courses. To check the availability of videos on these platforms, please refer to our list of titles with expiration dates, which is regularly updated.

Please submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/.  If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu.

The USF Libraries subscribe to AVON: Academic Video Online and other database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles but are in the USF Libraries online catalogs. Content that is perpetually available will continue (as noted on the list of titles with expiration dates). Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection and online databases
  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Email: Streaming Media platforms reminder

Posted on

Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder email to faculty using streaming media in their courses. As previously announced, the USF Libraries has discontinued leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms. Leased titles that are currently active on the two platforms will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time. To check the availability of videos on these platforms, please refer to our list of titles with expiration dates, which is regularly updated.

We recently realized that a previously used form for  submitting streaming media requests was still sending automatic notifications to renew video content, and we apologize for the confusion this has caused. That form has now been removed. Please submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/.  If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu.

The USF Libraries subscribe to AVON: Academic Video Online and other database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles but are in the USF Libraries online catalogs. Content that is perpetually available will continue (as noted on the list of titles with expiration dates). Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection and online databases
  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Email: Streaming media reminder for summer courses

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF Libraries staff, USF department heads, and faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder email to faculty using streaming media in their courses. The USF Libraries has discontinued leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms. Leased titles that are currently active on the two platforms will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time. To check the availability of videos on these platforms, please refer to our list of titles with expiration dates, which is regularly updated.

We now subscribe to AVON: Academic Video Online other database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles but are in the USF Libraries online catalog, so please take these resources into account when preparing your courses. Content that is perpetually available will continue (as noted on the list of titles with expiration dates). Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

Please also consult our curated selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

Please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection and online databases
  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Email: Streaming Media, FINAL REMINDER to Faculty

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF Libraries staff, USF department heads, and faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder email to faculty using streaming media in their courses for the spring 2022 semester and beyond. The USF Libraries will discontinue leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms at the end of this month, December 2021. Titles that are active at that time will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time.

We continue to explore alternate options for providing streaming media in a sustainable way with predictable costs. We have set up a subscription to AVON: Academic Video Online through ProQuest and Alexander Street Press. This adds over 70,000 streaming media titles to our collection (list attached—please do not try to print!) as part of a database subscription, with the ability to add perpetual content each year that we subscribe. This resource is listed in the catalog and databases A-Z list, but individual titles are still be added to the catalog. [I do have a .pdf version of the file sorted by subject and title, but it’s quite large; please let me know if you prefer that format.]

The USF Libraries continue to subscribe to database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles, so please take these resources into account when preparing your courses. These titles are also listed in the USF Libraries catalog. For other platforms with individual titles, we have a list of titles with expiration dates available and regularly updated. Content that is perpetually available will continue, and the USF Libraries are purchasing selected Kanopy content to keep some of the content available to the USF community in perpetuity. Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

Please also consult our curated a selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

Through December 2021, please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection and online databases
  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

AVON Titles

Email: Streaming Media Reminder to Faculty

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF Libraries staff, USF department heads, and faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder email to faculty using streaming media in their courses for the spring 2022 semester and beyond. The USF Libraries will discontinue leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms at the end of December 2021. Titles that are active at that time will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time.

We continue to explore alternate options for providing streaming media in a sustainable way with predictable costs. This includes a subscription to AVON: Academic Video Online through ProQuest and Alexander Street Press. This will add around 70,000 streaming media titles to our collection as part of a database subscription, with the ability to add perpetual content each year that we subscribe (see attached brochure). This resource is still in process, so stay tuned for more information!

The USF Libraries continue to subscribe to database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles, so please take these resources into account when preparing your courses. These titles are also listed in the USF Libraries catalog. For other platforms with individual titles, we have a list of titles with expiration dates available and regularly updated. Content that is perpetually available will continue, and the USF Libraries is purchasing selected Kanopy content to keep some of the content available to the USF community in perpetuity. Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

Please also consult our curated a selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

Through December 2021, please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection and online databases
  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Academic Video Online Brochure

Email: New Adam Matthew Primary Resource Collections

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF Libraries staff.

I am writing with happy news! USF is a member of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), and the ASERL group acquired the attached list of Adam Matthew Digital collections. As an ASERL member, USF now has perpetual access to all Adam Matthew Digital titles published through 2016, a total of 77 resources. There are no fees or ongoing costs for this set of resources.

Each of these collections would have been a substantial investment for the USF Libraries to acquire, so this is a significant addition to our collections. Adam Matthew will be offering training through ASERL towards the end of the month and has offered to provide a training session to interested USF Libraries staff. In the meantime, the USF Libraries Collections & Discovery group has added these materials to the Databases A-Z list.

Stay tuned for more information, but in the meantime, please share this information with your faculty.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Adam Matthew Collections via ASERL

Email: Streaming Media Reminder to Faculty

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to USF Libraries staff, USF department heads, and faculty identified as using streaming media.

This is a reminder to faculty using streaming media in their courses for the spring 2022 semester and beyond. The USF Libraries will discontinue leasing titles on the Kanopy and Swank streaming platforms at the end of December 2021. Titles that are active at that time will continue until they expire; most titles are leased for 12 months at a time.

A full list of titles with expiration dates is available and will be updated regularly. Content that is perpetually available will continue, and the USF Libraries is purchasing selected Kanopy content to keep some of the content available to the USF community in perpetuity. Unfortunately, not all titles are available for purchase.

The USF Libraries continue to subscribe to database platforms that include streaming media; these titles are not included in the separate list of titles, so please take these resources into account when preparing your courses. We continue to explore alternate options for providing streaming media in a sustainable way with predictable costs. In the meantime, as a supplemental resource, we have curated a selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

Through the fall 2021 semester, please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Email: Streaming media on Kanopy and Swank platforms

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to specific USF faculty and shared with the USF Libraries staff.

Good afternoon!

You are receiving this information because you have been identified as a faculty member that requested streaming media via Course Reserves at some point in the past several semesters.

The USF Libraries have struggled with funding streaming media on the Kanopy and Swank platforms for the past few years in light of escalating costs and title requests. Due to the unsustainability of the streaming media models on these platforms and the cost to lease individual titles for 12 months at a time, the USF Libraries have made the difficult decision to discontinue leasing content on these two platforms at the end of the 2021 calendar year.

Content that is perpetually available will continue, and the USF Libraries are analyzing usage patterns of Kanopy content to determine which titles we can purchase-to-own to keep them available to the USF community in perpetuity. Other titles will expire individually during the 2022 calendar year. A full list of titles with expiration dates is available and will be updated regularly. As titles are purchased in a perpetual access/ownership model, those will be indicated on that page. Kanopy titles will be purchased (if available for purchase) as they near their current expiration date.

Titles on the Swank platform are more expensive, but we do have a limited number of slots that we purchased for this year. Once those slots are used, we will not be renewing the Swank contract. The Swank platform hosts a number of feature films, but with the proliferation of streaming media platforms for individual use, we are finding that some of our most popular selections are being removed from the Swank platform. The USF Libraries, as an institutional subscriber, are not able to lease content hosted on platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, or Disney Plus.

The USF Libraries continue to subscribe to database platforms that include streaming media. We have also curated a selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

For the fall 2021 semester, please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units. Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection
  • To identify open access media alternatives
  • To consult our Frequently Asked Questions information

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,

Carol Ann

Email: Streaming media on Kanopy and Swank platforms

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to all USF department chairs and shared with the USF Libraries staff.

Good morning, and welcome back for fall semester! I am copying department heads in this email; if you have faculty that use the Kanopy and Swank platforms, please share this information with them.

The USF Libraries has struggled with funding streaming media on the Kanopy and Swank platforms for the past few years in light of escalating costs and title requests. Due to the unsustainability of the streaming media models on these platforms and the cost to lease individual titles for 12 months at a time, the USF Libraries has made the difficult decision to discontinue leasing titles through Kanopy and Swank at the end of the 2021 calendar year.

Content that is perpetually available will continue, and the USF Libraries is analyzing usage patterns of Kanopy content to determine if we can purchase-to-own selected titles to keep them available to the USF community in perpetuity. Other titles will expire individually during the 2022 calendar year. A full list of titles with expiration dates is available and will be updated regularly.

Titles on the Swank platform are more expensive, but we do have a limited number of slots that we purchased for this year. Once those slots are used, we will not be renewing the Swank contract. The Swank platform hosts a number of feature films, but with the proliferation of streaming media platforms for individual use, we are finding that some of our most popular selections are being removed from the Swank platform. The USF Libraries, as an institutional subscriber, is not able to lease content hosted on platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, or Disney Plus.

The USF Libraries continues to subscribe to database platforms that include streaming media. We have also curated a selection of freely accessible video and other media content on the Digital Learning Objects & Media Tools to Supplement Instruction guide.

For the fall 2021 semester, please continue to submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units. Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection
  • To identify open access media alternatives

If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

Best wishes,
Carol Ann

For more information, please see our Streaming Media FAQ.

Presentation: USF Libraries Streaming Media Information

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Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, gave a presentation to interested USF Libraries faculty and staff to explain why streaming media is so complicated. This included a discussion of associated technological issues, copyright, and perpetual versus leased access. Streaming media has been an ongoing challenge for the library for the past few years as demand skyrocketed but no new money was added to the budget to support this initiative. At the end of the 2021 calendar year, the USF Libraries plan to shut down the Kanopy and Swank platforms where we repeatedly pay to lease titles that we do not own. The goal of this session was to provide librarians and staff a stronger foundation in understanding the process and answering faculty questions.

Slides, Streaming Media Information

Email: Elsevier EBA Program Ending July 15, Alternates Available

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Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to all USF Libraries staff.

The USF Libraries’ Evidence-Based Acquisition (EBA) program for ebooks on the Elsevier platform, which has provided faculty and students the discovery and access to significant scholarly books, is coming to an end on July 15th. The Tampa campus library is in the process of purchasing unowned titles with the most substantial usage or need with the amount remaining in the deposit account by June 30. If you have any requests for Elsevier titles please let us know as soon as possible. C&D will determine if we own them already.

Elsevier records for titles that we are not purchasing and have not been used will be removed from the catalog by July 15. Titles with recent usage that are not selected for purchase on the Elsevier platform will be made available via the Demand Driven Acquisition program on the Ebook Central platform, with associated records loaded into the catalog. Elsevier titles may also be purchased directly through GOBI by emailing lib-orders@usf.edu. If you, or any patron, are seeking an ebook title that you can no longer find in the catalog, please let us know, and we will endeavor to make it accessible for you.

Please let Carol Ann Davis know if you have any questions (borchert@usf.edu).

Email: A New Library Catalog is Coming!

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Message sent on behalf of Todd Chavez, Dean of the USF Libraries, to all USF faculty.

Dear USF Colleagues,

Due to a recent legislative mandate, all Florida public college and university libraries are migrating to a new integrated, shared library catalog/discovery tool in July 2021. The “look and feel” of the USF Libraries website, catalog, and discovery search interface will not drastically change, but the underlying platform will improve access to and management of academic library collections.

Specifically, this new shared catalog will provide:

  • A shared catalog of library holdings enabling users to search materials owned by any public college or university in Florida.
  • Ability to search a statewide collection of over 400,000 online journals, e-books, and other valuable resources (access is tied to institutional ownership).
  • Access to more than 150,000 unique digital archive items and increased capacity to search and access local digital collections.
  • A statewide open educational community to promote and support textbook affordability and Open Educational Resources (OER’s).

As USF Libraries transitions to the new system, some changes will occur in the coming weeks:

  • As of May 1, U-borrow will be temporarily suspended, BUT book requests will automatically be redirected to ILLIAD, the USF interlibrary loan system, until the new catalog is in place.
  • As of May 27, no new items will be added to the library catalog until the transition to the new catalog is completed.
  • By mid-July the changeover to the new system will take place.

Please check https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/new-catalog-and-discovery-migration/ for updates and changes as the USF Libraries transition to the new system. We hope to address any of your questions or concerns through a “Comments” form on the site. Thank you for your patience as we make this change as seamless for you as possible.

Email: USF Libraries Survey: E-Journal Prioritization (Arts & Humanities)

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to Arts & Humanities department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning Arts & Humanities titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3dX1OBVpFXy5Bxs

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: English, CAS: History, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to Arts & Humanities department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: USF Libraries Survey: E-Journal Prioritization (STEM)

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the STEM department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning STEM titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d5VIdagrRb8vCiG

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: Chemistry, CAS: Geosciences, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to STEM department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: USF Libraries Survey, E-Journal Prioritization (Social Sciences)

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the Social Sciences department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning Social Sciences titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cT3XGA1CelYjDme

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: Anthropology, CAS: Economics, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to Social Sciences department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: Revisioning Collection Management Updates

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the deans and Provost.

Colleagues,

This morning, this email was sent to Dwayne Smith so that he can forward it to his distribution list to begin the final review/revise phase of this year’s strategic budget realignment process. Surveys will go to the chairs/directors next Tuesday.

When the survey links are available, I will share them with you so that you can see what the faculty are seeing. In the meantime, you can review the full list of 671 titles impacted by the realignment process and supplemental data on the Faculty Survey Data website.

We plan to have all of this phase completed before the faculty leave for the summer.

Todd

Email: USF Libraries Survey, E-Journal Prioritization

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to all deans and chairs from the Provost Office.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

In October 2020, the USF Libraries began Revisioning Collection Management as a response to the 2020–2022 strategic budget realignment process and a decade-long pattern of unsustainable annual cost increases. Due to time constraints, we had to make difficult decisions based on analyses of a series of well-established variables. During the analysis phase we invited – and received – considerable faculty input, but are now entering a formal review/revise phase designed to solicit specific faculty feedback regarding library resources that were not renewed.

This is where we need your help.

On Tuesday, April 13, the USF Libraries will send you a Qualtrics survey concerning these non-renewed titles. We ask you to forward this information to your faculty; please feel free to send the information to graduate students in your departments if you wish to do so. Survey responses will help the library prioritize reacquisition of important resources using the remaining funds available following the strategic realignment process. To make the process more manageable for you and your faculty, lists of non-renewed titles are divided into three broad interdisciplinary clusters – arts and humanities, social sciences, and STEM – with each department receiving the category list most aligned with their content area. Links to data and other helpful information will accompany the survey.

All pertinent information concerning our process is available at lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/. If you are interested in information concerning specific titles, please consult the resources under review and/or retained resources links on this website. If you have follow-up questions, please contact your library liaison.

Thank you, and Go Bulls!

Email: Faculty Q&A Session, Revisioning Collection Management

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to all USF faculty via Academic Affairs.

Dear USF Faculty Colleagues,

In December 2020, and earlier this morning, the USF Libraries Collection Advisory Group held information sessions presenting the “Revisioning Collection Management” process. To ensure that as many faculty as possible are informed about the process, we are hosting an additional session next week to review our on-going process and answer questions. Please note if you attended the December sessions or this morning’s, the information shared next week will be the same.

All pertinent information concerning our process is available at lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/, and please see Our Compact with Faculty as well. If you are interested in information concerning specific titles, please consult resources under review and/or retained resources. If you have follow-up questions, please contact your library liaison.

The next information session is March 11th. Please register at https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cZsgONhVXUKaLTE. Microsoft Teams login information is below:

We look forward to engaging with you.

Thank you, and Go Bulls!

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to USF Faculty regarding upcoming Q&A Session, 3/5/2021

Meeting: Budget Realignment Process, Collections Review Cycle, and Relief Proposal

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Dean Todd Chavez updated the members of the Faculty Senate’s Library Council on the progress of the budget realignment process and provided an overview of the formal review cycle and a COVID-19 relief fund proposal that would mitigate the impacts on the collection and provide a significant ROI.

picture_as_pdf Presentation slides for Faculty Senate’s Library Council meeting, 3/5/2021

Presentation: Budget Process and Journal Collection Analysis

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Presentation by Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to all interested USF Libraries’ staff.

Associate Dean Carol Ann Davis gave a presentation and Q&A with the USF Libraries faculty and staff to provide a “behind the scenes” look at our process and how the Libraries decide which journals to retain. She discussed criteria, how statistics are gathered, and why it is so difficult to determine perpetual access. The goal was to provide the librarians and staff a stronger foundation in understanding the process and answering faculty questions

picture_as_pdf Presentation slides, 2/12/2021

Email: Faculty Q&A Sessions, Revisioning Collection Management

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Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to all USF faculty members.

Dear USF Faculty Colleagues,

In December 2020, the USF Libraries Collection Advisory Group held two information sessions presenting the “Revisioning Collection Management” process. To ensure that as many faculty as possible are informed about the process, we will be hosting two additional sessions in March to review our on-going process and answer questions. Please note if you attended the December sessions, the information shared in March will be repeated.

All pertinent information concerning our process is available at lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/, and please see Our Compact with Faculty as well. If you are interested in information concerning specific titles, please consult resources under review and/or retained resources. If you have follow-up questions, please contact your library liaison.

Information sessions will be offered March 4th in the morning and March 11th in the afternoon to accommodate schedules. Please register for the session you would like to attend at https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cZsgONhVXUKaLTE. Microsoft Teams login information for both sessions are below:

We look forward to engaging with you.

Thank you, and Go Bulls!

picture_as_pdf Email from Todd Chavez regarding upcoming information sessions, 2/16/2021

Email: Faculty Q&A Sessions, Revisioning Collection Management

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Message was sent from Maggie Trela, our Communications and Marketing Officer, to all USF Libraries faculty and staff.

Hello LIB faculty!

The Collections Advisory Group (CAG) will be hosting two spring faculty Q&A sessions to review our Revisioning Collection Management process. These sessions will be the same as those offered in early December 2020. If you are interested in attending these sessions, please let me know and I’ll send you the calendar invite/s. The email invite to USF faculty will be going out from the Provost’s Office this week and can be found under my signature.

Thank you!

picture_as_pdf Email from Maggie Trela to USF Libraries faculty and staff, 2/16/2021

Email: Open access Unpaywall materials now listed in USF’s FindIt! interface

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Message was sent by Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, Collections & Discovery, USF Libraries, to USF department chairs.

Please share the following information with the faculty in your areas.

The USF Libraries are pleased to announce the deployment of the Unpaywall (https://unpaywall.org/) application. Unpaywall is an open database of over 28 million scholarly articles available to you by selecting the “Full Text Open Access” link that will appear in qualifying records in the Libraries’ FindIt! search tool results. This service is part of our commitment to provide you with access to the content you need for research and instruction (see https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/ for more information).

More information on the open access movement and OA initiatives at USF is available here: https://guides.lib.usf.edu/openaccess

Background

For over a decade, the open access (OA) movement has been gaining steam with the proliferation of OA article repositories, OA journals, and grantor requirements to make published research openly available. As a result, millions of items are now freely available, but are often housed and searchable in various venues. Several services have started collating this material into central interfaces to make them more discoverable. One of these is Unpaywall, which harvests open access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories to provide centralized access to over 28 million free scholarly articles.

Below is an example of how material will display:

Email: Unpaywall materials now listed in USF’s FindIt! interface

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Message was sent by Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, Collections & Discovery, USF Libraries, to all USF Libraries faculty and staff.

We are pleased to announce that EBSCO has integrated the Unpaywall API into the USF Libraries’ discovery interface, Find It! Unpaywall harvests open access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories to provide centralized access to over 28 million free scholarly articles.

Below is an example of how material will display:

Please Ask a Librarian if you have any questions.

Notice: Revisioning Collection Management Process Update

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Message was sent by Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, Collections & Discovery, USF Libraries, to all USF Libraries faculty and staff.

Journals:

First, the good news: We have been reassured by our sales reps for the large journal publishers that we are not being cut off on Jan. 1 while we renegotiate the configuration of our title lists. Notes on specific packages:

  • Elsevier, Cambridge, and Wiley are continuing multi-year agreements at the state level through 2021.
  • Wiley will be removing about 150 or so titles (that are low-use state-wide) from the agreement in order to give us a much-needed discount this year.
  • Taylor & Francis has offered to bridge us this year for content while the colleges determine what academic programs are continuing. There will be little to no content loss for 2021
  • Sage, Oxford, and Springer/Nature are still under negotiation

On the smaller packages, we have unbundled a few of them in order to save money this year (Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). Others are still being reviewed.

We also have several hundred individual journal subscriptions that we’ve been trying to evaluate along the way. This week, we’ve been madly going through looking at usage reports from the smaller publishers to determine content to keep or cancel. We’ve sent information to EBSCO on about half of these, but we have a ways to go there.

So that brings me to the bad news: For some of the smaller packages and titles, we will likely lose access on January 1. Given the time crunch, we have not updated the link resolver and catalog record on those yet; we will be doing that the first week of January when we return. I have a list now of what does NOT have perpetual access once it expires, so those will be top priority to evaluate and renew or deactivate/remove records when we return. Even titles with perpetual access will need the dates updated, because there are often years of access that we get with a subscription in addition to the “owned” content from the years we subscribed. For those that are definitely renewing, our EBSCO rep has a list to work through when she is back in the office on Monday, Dec. 28.

Ebooks:

We are holding on the 2021 Springer ebook package purchase. What we have, we own; Springer ebooks are not an EBA program, though it does include some complimentary content. Our rep assures us that we own most of that, too, as part of our annual purchases, but we don’t have written confirmation of that. We will be spot-checking those titles the first week of January to make sure there are no surprises.

We are also holding on renewing the Wiley EBA program for ebooks until we have a better sense of the budget. Laura is making final purchase selections for this year’s contract and has asked Wiley to grace us until Jan. 15th so that we can update catalog records. We don’t have a final answer on that yet, so fingers crossed.

Databases and other content:

More good news here: I think we actually got through evaluating everything with a December 31 expiration date.

Revisioning Collection Management pages:

We hit a snag on updating the Cancellations Table yesterday. We had so much content to add that we hit a character limit in LibGuides. We are going to move this to WordPress during the first week of January so that we can get the table functionality back. Right now, the page has a static image of the table with a .pdf and Excel option to download. I just realized late last night that the image is arranged alphabetically, not by expiration date first, so there are old cancellations mixed in the alphabetic list. The .pdf and Excel files are now arranged by date, then by title of resource.

Email: Library Collections and Budget Statement

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Message was sent by USF Health Libraries to their stakeholders.

Managing library resources for the University of South Florida within the recent budget constraints due to the COVID pandemic requires actions by the academic USF Libraries and the USF Health Libraries. This is our update on how the USF Libraries and the USF Health Libraries are addressing this year’s budget challenges and how we can continue to support the research and instruction conducted at USF.

The USF Libraries (Tampa Campus Library, Poynter Library – St, Petersburg, and Library Services – Sarasota) have posted their “Revisioning Collection Management,” plan that details the steps they are taking to ensure their “commitment to providing USF faculty and students with access to the content they need for research and instruction” (https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/).

The USF Health Libraries, composed of the Shimberg Health Science Library and the Florida Blue Health Knowledge Exchange, are committed to providing resources to support USF Health education, research, scholarship, and the accreditation of our colleges and programs.

With the steadfast support of our USF Health Leadership, the USF Health Libraries is in an excellent position to maintain collections that critically support USF Health’s research and educational activities, while taking the opportunity to re-work our journal subscription packages. In doing so, we hope to free up library budget funds to subscribe to and maintain the most important resources for your work.

We see this time of budget uncertainties as a way to REFRESH our collections to provide stronger support to USF Health programs and priorities in the form of the journals, books, and databases that are most significant to your efforts as students, instructors, researchers, residents, and administrators.

Our evidence-based plan is simple:

  1. ASSESS: We will enhance our current data-driven decision making for collections renewals and acquisitions including the use of a combination of third-party resources that will allow us to model and forecast our collections decisions for so-called “big deal” (i.e., major publishing houses) packages. These data will include faculty citations, faculty authorship, annual usage, backfiles usage, perpetual access, open access, interlibrary loan costs (including copyright costs), full-text denials, and prices.
  2. ASK: We will build journal subscription models to obtain the most cost-effective journal subscription plans for our highest-cost journal packages (e.g., Springer/Nature, Sage, Wiley, and Elsevier). This will allow us to keep or reacquire the individual journals in those packages that are the most used and most important to USF Health, while freeing up funds to obtain other needed collection resources that support new teaching and research initiatives of our faculty members.
  3. ACQUIRE: We will gather input on new titles and resources from our liaison librarians and from USF Health faculty members to use with our forecasting and decision-making models.
  4. APPRAISE: We will carefully review and conduct a final analysis of all data collected and select resources for renewal, cancellation, and acquisition.
  5. APPLY: We will negotiate with our vendors for fair deals for selected titles and subscribe or purchase accordingly. We will then communicate our refreshed collections with all of you.
  6. EVALUATE: We will apply continuous-quality improvement methods to collect and analyze the data following our evidence-based methodology. This process will ensure we are providing the most cost-effective, critical resources aligned with the goals and mission of USF Health and the USF Health Libraries.

Our promise to you: We will remain flexible and open in our decision making in response to our ever-changing environment and the individual and programmatic needs of our students, faculty, researchers, residents, and administrators. As always, interlibrary loan services will be available to obtain requested full-text articles we may not have access to in our collections.

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Email sent from USF Health Libraries to its stakeholders, 12/14/2020

Email: Note to Faculty on RefWorks Being Discontinued

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Message was sent to all faculty members via Academic Affairs.

RefWorks, the citation management software, will no longer be available after December 31, 2020. This resource is currently funded through the Florida Academic Library Services Cooperative (FALSC) and is not being renewed. Other reference management software such as Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley are supported by the USF Libraries, with more information provided through our guide on Citing Sources.

No new RefWorks user accounts will be accepted beginning August 1, 2020, and current RefWorks users who would like to save their references are advised to export them by December 31, 2020. Users will have until January 31, 2021 to access their accounts for the purpose of exporting references, after which accounts will be permanently inaccessible. All attachments must be downloaded and reattached to references separately in another citation manager. Information on how to export your references and migrate to another citation manager is provided in the USF Libraries Guide on RefWorks.

If you have questions about exporting your RefWorks references, please contact Susan Silver at ssilver@usf.edu.

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Email sent to all of Academic Affairs, 12/14/2020

Notice: RefWorks Citation Manager Cancellation Effective January 1, 2021

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The Refworks citation management software will no longer be available after December 31, 2020.  This resource is currently funded through the Florida Academic Library Services Cooperative (FALSC) and is not being renewed.  Other citation management software is available such as Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley and is supported by the USF Libraries. Visit Citing Sources: Citation Management Software LibGuide for more information.

RefWorks users who would like to save their references are advised to export them by December 31, 2020. Users will have until January 31, 2021 to access their accounts for the purpose of exporting references, after which accounts will be permanently inaccessible. To access your account after Dec 31, 2020, please contact ssilver@usf.edu. All attachments must be downloaded and reattached to references separately in another citation manager. 

Information on how to export your references and migrate to another citation manager is provided in the USF Libraries Guide on Refworks from the tab Migrating to Another Citation Manager and at Managing References: Exporting References to a File (New RefWorks users) and Exporting References from Legacy RefWorks (Legacy RefWorks users).

If you have already exported your references, you do not need to take any action. Your account will be deleted automatically on January 31, 2021.

If you have questions about exporting your RefWorks references, please contact Susan Silver (ssilver@usf.edu).

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Email from Susan Silver to RefWorks users who have active accounts

Email: Budget and Collections Realignment

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Message sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the USF Faculty.

As part of the University’s strategic budget realignment process, the USF Libraries are engaged in a comprehensive “Revisioning Collection Management” process. Because the majority of our base budget is tied to collections, the impact of the realignment must largely accrue to our library materials budget, primarily recurring subscriptions. To meet the realignment targets, our process is guided by the following principles:

  • continue support of faculty resource needs;
  • maximize control of the USF Libraries collection budget;
  • end reliance on non-recurring funding sources;
  • engage faculty in the decision-making process; and
  • refocus collection expenditures on perpetual rather than leased access.

Although the process for accessing full-text library resources may change, the Libraries’ commitment to providing USF faculty and students with access to the content needed for research and instruction is unwavering. To ensure transparency and provide all pertinent information concerning the revisioning process, a comprehensive informational website will be maintained at https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/. Please see Our Compact with Faculty as well.

We invite you to participate in Q&A sessions the first week of December to learn more, and a morning and afternoon option is available to accommodate schedules. Please register for the session you would like to attend at https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_daI7kmqQXjCKzWd. Microsoft Teams login information for both sessions are below:

Morning Session: Tuesday, December 1stfrom 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Afternoon Session: Wednesday, December 2ndfrom 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.

We look forward to engaging with you throughout this process.

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Email from Dean Todd Chavez to the USF Faculty ListServ, 11/18/2020

Email: Strategic Budget Discussion, Updated from 11/3/2020

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Message sent by Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to all USF Libraries’ faculty and staff.

Following up on Dean Todd Chavez’s message on Tuesday (11/3/2020), he attached revised versions of the slide deck and handout as well as the promised “USF Libraries Compact with the Faculty” authored by our colleagues serving on the Collection Advisory Group (Jason Boczar, Emily Mann, Audrey Powers, and LeEtta Schmidt). Many thanks to the group!

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Email from Dean Todd Chavez to all USF Libraries faculty and staff, 11/5/2020
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USF Libraries’ Budget Realignment Strategy, Slide Deck
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Revisioning Collection Management, Handout
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USF Libraries Compact with the Faculty

Email: Strategic Budget Discussion

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Message sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, the USF Libraries’ faculty and staff.

To effectively manage this unprecedented budget realignment, it will be essential that everyone has accurate and consistent information that can be shared with members of the University community. To that end, we have prepared tools to help you:

  • an email (attached) that can be shared with colleagues as needed;
  • a slide deck (attached) that can be used for presentations to faculty;
  • a brief handout (attached) that provides an overview of the issues; and
  • a comprehensive website (see link below) containing a wealth of information concerning the realignment and its impact on our collections.

Our goal is to be transparent, accurate, and consistent in all communications to all parties. Although we anticipate that librarians will use this communications packet more frequently in the course of their assigned duties, we have elected to send this email to all employees of the USF Libraries to keep everyone equally informed and capable of sharing accurate information if asked.

In the coming weeks, our Collection Advisory Group (Jason Boczar, Emily Mann, Audrey Powers, and LeEtta Schmidt) will produce a “USF Libraries Compact with the Faculty” –a document that clearly enumerates our unwavering commitment to USF faculty to serve their information resource needs by all means available to us. Once that document is available, it will be distributed to everyone and posted on our “Revisioning Collection Management” website at: https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/

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Email from Dean Todd Chavez to Library Faculty & Staff, 11/3/2020

Notice: Institute of Physics Journals Package Reconfiguration Effective November 1

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The immediate impact is the reconfiguration of the Institute of Physics (IOP) journals package, expiring November 1, 2020. A rigorous analysis of the Institute of Physics (IOP) journals package considered usage, cost per use, research impact, anticipated interlibrary loan and copyright fees, and perpetual content access. As a result, as of November 1, 2020, the USF Libraries will not renew the IOP ScienceExtra package, but rather subscribe to 25 titles individually (list is attached). Articles from titles that are not on this list will be available through interlibrary loan upon request.

In 2013, the USF Libraries purchased IOP backfiles through 2009. Beginning in 2013, annual subscription included perpetual access. This material continues to be available as part of the permanent collection.

The USF Libraries’ commitment to providing USF faculty and students with access to the content needed for research and instruction is unwavering. For more information on the USF Libraries’ revisioning of collection management, please see: https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/. Updates will be posted to this page in the coming weeks.

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IOP 2021 Subscriptions
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IOP Perpetual Access

Notice: LatinNews Cancellation Effective November 1

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In order to meet budget realignment targets, as well as to respond to a decade-long pattern of unsustainable annual cost increases, the USF Libraries is in the process of revisioning collection management strategies. A key component of the process is to evaluate all recurring expenditures to retain only those of primary importance to research and instruction at USF.

The immediate impact is the cancellation of LatinNews on November 1, 2020. A rigorous analysis of LatinNews considered usage, cost per use, research impact, and comparable subscribing universities with similar programs. The USF Libraries found declining usage over the past few years, resulting in a cost per use exceeding $25. The USF Libraries continue to provide access to Newsbank and Gale’s Informe for newspaper data, and other sources of country data, including OECD.

The USF Libraries’ commitment to providing USF faculty and students with access to the content needed for research and instruction is unwavering. For more information on the USF Libraries’ revisioning of collection management, please see: https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/. Updates will be posted to this page in the coming weeks, and I am attaching a handout with further information on our process, principles, and additional resources.

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Revisioning Collection Management, Handout

Email: Streaming Media

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Message was sent to Department Chairs.

As the Spring 2021 textbook adoption cycle continues, I have an important message for courses using streaming video content provided by the USF Libraries.

Please submit all streaming video requests through the Course Reserves function in Canvas. Instructions are available at https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/. If you encounter any issues in submitting through Canvas, please email LIBReserves@usf.edu. The maximum number of videos per course will continue to be limited to five (5) units.

Visit our USF Libraries Media Guide:

  • To search by title to determine if the USF Libraries has perpetual ownership or expiring access to currently available streaming movies
  • To search for movies and documentaries in the USF Libraries’ extensive DVD movie collection
  • To identify open access media alternatives

If you are using a video that is currently expiring mid-spring semester, we recommend planning to use the video before the expiration date. If you would like additional help finding alternate material, please contact your Liaison Librarian.

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Emails sent regarding Streaming Media for Spring 2021, 10/26/2020

Email: USF Libraries’ Budget Realignment

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Message sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to USF College Deans.

I wanted to take a moment to provide some information concerning the USF Libraries’ budget realignment requirements. The budget realignment requirements are substantial and will likely impact the entire community at some level.

  • Year 1 Reduction: $1,383,500
  • Year 2 Reduction: $ 650,000
  • TOTAL: $2,033,500

The 15.3 percent realignment includes personnel actions, program elimination/suspension, reduced operational expenditures (e.g. travel, equipment), and membership cancellations, but the majority of the impact will be in our collections budget, primarily recurring subscriptions, because this is the lion’s share of our E&G base budget.

To meet these levels we are compelled to:

  • aggressively modify our seven “Big Deals” –the large subscription bundles that includes Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Springer/Nature, Wiley, Oxford, Cambridge, and Sage;
  • reevaluate prior “luxuries” such as maintaining subscriptions to both Web of Science and Scopus;
  • target low use/high cost content even if they are research intensive; and
  • consider cancellations of anything on the margins of our institutional mission.

It is going to be very difficult to balance our deepest desire to do no harm and meet these targets, but we think that we can manage the tightrope through an equally aggressive service plan and commitment to meeting faculty needs by any means necessary. To that end, we are launching a phased approach:

  • Now through December –Step 1: notify vendors/publishers that USF will be reviewing its current collection selections and will reacquire a subset. This is the legal step we must take to meet the terms of our contracts and licenses. This will immediately impact four “Big Deals.”
  • November through January –Step 2: conduct a comprehensive analysis of our recurring collection. Through our website (see below), we will literally flood the faculty with data that they can choose to review, or not. It will be a transparent exercise.
  • January through February/March –Step 3: reacquire content based on the analysis in Step 2.
  • March through May –Step 4: review and consider next steps on canceled content. ILL/Document Delivery and other mechanisms will be in place in January to bridge gaps.

Ironically, we anticipate (remains to be tested) that we may actually create a discretionary buffer that will allow us to permanently acquire “leased” content to lower future recurring obligations. That evaluation will go on concurrently with Steps 2-3. Because we have no discretionary funds at this time, we cannot take advantage of these opportunities.

Finally, we are preparing (an early draft is up at https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/) a comprehensive information resource to ensure 100 percent transparency in all that we do. Once we are ready, we will market this resource to the University community as a one-stop-shop for collection impacts from the realignment.

One request: if any of you can share any specific program impacts, this will be very helpful. For example, if you are considering a program’s elimination or a change from Grad 2 to Grad 1, we can consider those resources as candidates for cancellation without fear of impact.

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Email from Dean Todd Chavez to the USF College Deans, 10/22/2020

Email: Faculty Advisory Group for Collections Formation

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Message sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the Libraries’ faculty members.

USF is facing an unprecedented series of budgetary challenges that will play out over a two-year period. The total two year recurring realignment process to our collections budget approaches $2 million. This level of change requires an aggressive response that must include cancellations of content in all disciplines, judicious retention of core/high use resources, and utilization of alternative information sources, all coupled with a robust strategy to continue to meet faculty needs to the greatest extent possible.

Todd Chavez is calling for nominations (self-nominations are welcome) for library faculty to serve on a USF Libraries Collections Advisory Group with the following charge:

The Collections Advisory Group is charged with advising the Dean of the USF Libraries on strategies to be employed to manage the Libraries’ collections during 2020-22. Activities include:

  • drafting a “USF Libraries Compact with the Faculty” document that clearly describes the libraries’ commitment to supporting our faculty’s needs by any means available;
  • collaborating with the leadership of Collections & Discovery to develop principles to guide reduction/retention decisions;
  • collaborating with C&D and library leadership to develop a robust communication strategy that ensures transparency to all constituents, internal and external;
  • advising all relevant functional areas on processes designed to meet faculty resource needs; and
  • recommending, and subsequently implementing, an approved assessment strategy to ensure high-quality in those services developed to meet faculty resource needs.

Members of the CAG will be asked to meet regularly with C&D leadership and the Dean and should anticipate a significant time investment in the early phases of the collection review process, perhaps as much as 8-10 hours per week. Members of the group will participate with the Dean in presentations, email communications, and other activities as needed to ensure full transparency to the University community; this may include periodic meetings with senior University leadership, the USF Faculty Senate, and the Faculty Senate’s Library Council. Please send nominations, including self-nominations, directly to me no later than the end of business on Monday, October 26. The short deadline is needed so that the group leader can join in a meeting with UCM and other parties concerning budget realignment messaging on October 29.

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Email from Dean Todd Chavez to all USF Libraries faculty, 10/21/2020

Email: Strategic Collection Revisioning

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Message sent by Kaya van Beynen, Associate Dean of USF Libraries, to the Research and Instruction librarians on the USF Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota-Manatee campuses.

Here are a few things to keep you updated and to follow up on some of our recent conversations.

The new streamlined ILL / Document Delivery page is now live: https://lib.usf.edu/ill/ Terry, Natalie, and Sandra did a great job changing the overall page and submission form to make it easier for faculty and students on all campuses to request items.

If you receive questions from faculty regarding streaming media for their courses, you should refer them to the eReserves Request form: https://lib.usf.edu/course-reserves/make-request/ The library is renewing film licenses for Fall 2020 courses and receiving requests for the Spring 2021 semester. Also, the USF Libraries Media Guide is also a great place to send your faculty.

Next week, the library’s revisioning the Collections website will go live with an explanation of the what we’re doing and the list of FAQs for faculty. Based on our conversations as well as some of the questions from the faculty in the FS Library Council, the FAQs will expand to include the following questions:

  • Are we keeping JSTOR?
  • Can I still read through Table of Contents?

This will be a living webpage, updated as we learn more and if you have questions or hear common concerns from faculty, please share them with me so that we add these to the FAQs or edit the page accordingly.

I am happy to say, that it is looking like the cuts to the library and to the collections will not be as bad as anticipated. Nonetheless, they will still be significant, and this will be a long, multi-staged process:

  • Now through December – Step 1: Right now our Collections colleagues are going through their legal requirements of notifying publishers regarding our contracts and licenses. This will immediately impact four “Big Deals.”
  • November through December – Step 2: Then they have to conduct title by title analysis of the journals. This will take several months. During these stages, we are still planning, and NO cuts have been implemented.
  • January through February/March – Step 3: reacquire content based on the analysis in Step 2.
  • March through May – Step 4: review and consider next steps on canceled content. Finally, stage four is an iterative step to consider next steps and re-evaluating titles to make sure that we are strategically meeting the needs of the university and programs. ILL/Document Delivery and other mechanisms will be in place in December to bridge gaps.

Your patience and consideration of this mammoth undertaking is appreciated. This revisioning process is something that all of USF is going through right now.

I know that our teaching and research colleagues will react with understanding even if you reaffirm the library’s commitment to supporting their research and instruction, refer them to what resources we now or will have in place — ILL, Document Delivery and article purchasing-on-demand, your professional suggestions on alternative sources, and the library collections that we either own outright or will re-subscribe to. It’s also ok to say “I don’t know at this time, but promise to get back to you when I and the library know more.”

I hope this helps, I am always happy to answer any questions you may have or else to talk to any faculty that you want to refer my way.

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Email from Associate Dean Kaya van Beynen to the Research and Instruction librarians on the USF Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota-Manatee campuses, 10/8/2020

Meeting: Budget Realignment

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Dean Todd Dean Chavez participated in a budget discussion hosted by President Currall and his senior leadership and the deans. Chavez participated in a budget discussion hosted by President Currall and his senior leadership and the deans.

Notice: Information Regarding the Strategic Budget Realignment, for the University Community

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The USF Libraries are participating in the strategic budget realignment process with all other units on the Tampa campus. In an effort to ensure consistent communication with our colleagues on all three campuses, faculty may receive this response when suggesting new purchases.

Thank you for submitting a request/requests for a new resource for the USF Libraries collections. The Library appreciates your interest in helping to develop collections and services relevant for your research and teaching. We are working with our numerous vendors on acquiring a price quote/quotes for this material.

Please be aware that as part of the university’s budget strategy for the coming year, the library —  and all colleges and support units across the Tampa campus — is experiencing a significant budget realignment. Changes in funding for Library collections coupled with an annual average increase of 4.4% for recurring collection commitment greatly restricts our purchasing capacity. As a result, the Library is unable to purchase additional resources at this time.

The Library will keep your request and the associated vendor quote should the situation unfold in the coming weeks which allows a return to active collection development.

Please address questions to Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, at borchert@usf.edu.

Notice: Project Muse Evidence-Based Acquisition Program

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The USF Libraries’ Project Muse Evidence-Based Acquisition program for ebooks, which has provided faculty and students the discovery and access to significant scholarly books, is coming to an end on August 31st. The Library is in the process of purchasing unowned titles with the most substantial usage or need with the amount remaining in the deposit account. We will hold in reserve a small amount as a contingency to be expended by mid-September in case there are valued titles that we missed in our process. If you have any requests for Project Muse titles please let us know as soon as possible. C&D will determine if we own them already. Project Muse records for titles that we are not purchasing and have not been used will be removed from the catalog by August 31. Titles with recent usage that are not selected for purchase on the Project Muse platform will be made available via the Demand Driven Acquisition program on the Ebook Central platform, with associated records loaded into the catalog. If you, or any patron, are seeking an ebook title that you can no longer find in the catalog, please let us know, and we will endeavor to make it accessible for you.

Notice: HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) Program Shutdown at USF

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HathiTrust has been assisting libraries with bridging access to print collections for the past few months while we have been closed. During that time, we have not been permitted to loan print materials from the collection that are also in HathiTrust, because the HathiTrust online access “counted” as our copy for that time. With the reopening of the library, we have requested HathiTrust shut off the temporary online access to the digitized versions of the library’s print titles on their platform, effective August 24. Patrons will be able to check out the print materials by requesting them via mail or retrieving them in the building. We determined this step was necessary because, per the terms of the HathiTrust ETAS program, we could not allow both access to the print copies in the collection and the online versions through HathiTrust at the same time.