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Posted on May 7, 2019

The California State University’s Council of Library Deans supports the University of California’s push for open access to publicly funded research

As the nation’s largest four-year public university system, the California State University’s (CSU) Council of Library Deans stand in full support of the University of California (UC) in their decision to not renew its subscriptions with Elsevier after protracted negotiations.

The UC’s firm stand is one that serves scholars of the world, including the citizens of the great State of California. The California Master Plan for Higher Education “created a system that combined exceptional quality with broad access for students.” In today’s world of diversity, inclusion, and equity, the idea that research and scholarship written by UC and CSU faculty and funded by taxpayers is not accessible across all educational systems and to all citizens is a travesty.

In a few months, the CSUs will begin negotiations with Elsevier, the world’s largest and most profitable scientific publisher, as our Elsevier Science Direct subscription is up for renewal in December 2019. We expect a repeat of past practices: another price increase that exceeds inflation and state budget allocations and student tuition and fee payments.

We are continuing conversations with our administrators, faculty, and students as to the true costs of academic publishing and research. We are educating our campuses on open access options and other ways in which we can ensure that our scholarship is open and accessible. We also hope to find a shared path forward, in partnership with Elsevier.

We are thankful to our UC colleagues and to many others who have added their voices to exposing unsustainable academic publishing practices, in which for-profit companies package and sell the intellectual output of our university professors and researchers.

 

Signed,

 

Curtis M. Asher
Dean of Libraries
California State University, Bakersfield

Emily Miller Bonney
Dean, Pollak Library
California State University, Fullerton

Stephanie Brasley
Dean, University Library
California State University, Dominguez Hills

Cesar Caballero
Dean & University Librarian
California State University, San Bernardino

Tracy Elliott
Dean, University Library
San Jose State University

Jennifer L. Fabbi
Dean, University Library
California State University, San Marcos

Emma C. Gibson
Interim Dean, University Library
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Del Hornbuckle
Dean of Library Services
California State University, Fresno

Amy Kautzman
Dean & Director, University Library
California State University, Sacramento

Roman Kochan
Dean & Director of the Library
California State University, Long Beach

Deborah C. Masters
University Librarian
San Francisco State University

Patrick McCarthy
Interim Dean
San Diego State University

Patrick Newell
Dean, Meriam Library
California State University, Chico

Cyril Oberlander
University Library Dean
Humboldt State University

Adriana Popescu
Dean of Library Services
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Juan Carlos Rodriguez
Dean, University Library
California State University, Los Angeles

Ronald Rodriguez
Dean of Library Services
California State University, Stanislaus

Karen G. Schneider
Dean of the Library
Sonoma State University

Mark Stover
Dean, University Library
California State University, Northridge

Michele Van Hoeck
Dean of the Library
California State University Maritime Academy

Alicia Virtue
Incoming Dean, John Spoor Broome Library
California State University, Channel Islands

John Wenzler
Dean of Libraries
California State University, East Bay

Frank M. Wojcik
Library Dean
California State University, Monterey Bay

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Posted on Apr 8, 2019

Frequently Asked Questions about the Electronic Core Collection (ECC)

Thanks to the advocacy of many partners over the 2018-2019 academic year, the plea for additional funding for the Electronic Core Collection was heard. Thank you to Executive Vice Chancellor, Dr. Loren Blanchard, for allocating an additional $1 million in base funds to this critical resource that benefits all California State University students, staff, and faculty. This case could not have been made without the support of the Statewide Academic Senate and the senates of many CSU campuses, listed below. We still have a way to go, but this goes a long way.

 

Resolutions in support of the ECC

The Statewide Academic Senate and several CSU campuses — including ChicoEast Bay, FullertonHumboldt, Long BeachLos Angeles, Monterey BayNorthridgeSacramentoSan Bernardino, San JoseSan Luis Obispo (also ASI), and Sonoma — have passed resolutions in support of increased funding for the ECC.

 

What is included in the ECC?

The ECC currently includes a collection of subscription databases of published content, including scholarly articles, popular news and magazine articles, reference articles, business data, and e-books. See the full list of 2018-19 ECC databases at the bottom of this document.

 

Who is responsible for the ECC?

The ECC began in 1999 as an initiative of the CSU Council of Library Deans (COLD). It is funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Academic Technology Services Division. Decisions about subscribed content included in the ECC are made by COLD, based on recommendations made by a COLD standing committee, EAR (Electronic Access to Information Resources), whose ten members include two deans, plus librarian representatives from small, medium, and large CSU campuses, each serving two-year terms.

 

Who can access the ECC?

All CSU students, faculty, and staff have unlimited access.

 

What is the current budget for the ECC?

$5 million per year, which has stayed flat since 2008. This cost equates to about $10 per CSU student.

 

What disciplines are covered by the ECC?

The ECC has a range of disciplinary content, including business, humanities, social sciences, law, technology, music, and physical and life sciences. The ECC is weak in STEM content, however, with several core resources missing. For example, the ECC does not include the most recent six years of the journals Science or Nature. Neither does it include the top science journal database, Elsevier’s ScienceDirect or the key resource for chemistry majors and faculty, American Chemical Society Journals.

 

How is the ECC being used?

This material is used for faculty and student research, creation and completion of course assignments, information literacy instruction, and a variety of other faculty, student, and staff projects. In 2017-18, there were over 17 million full-text downloads from all library databases procured by the CSU Chancellor’s Office, including the ECC.

 

If a resource is not included in the ECC, how do students and faculty at CSU campuses get access?

In some cases, individual CSU libraries subscribe to core resources not included in the ECC, which may be accessed by just those campus users. In other cases, particularly at smaller or less-resourced campuses, the individual library cannot subscribe to all core, necessary resources. Those students and faculty must rely on interlibrary loan, a slower, more onerous process and limited by copyright restrictions on quantity, or do without. This creates educational opportunity inequities between CSU campuses, and these access gaps have grown over time.

 

Does the system save money by purchasing content consortially for the ECC rather than individually by campus?

Yes. Savings for system-wide subscriptions vary but buying as a system is almost always less expensive.

 

How has the ECC been affected by stagnant funding and subsequent erosion of buying power?

With stagnant funding over the last ten years, there has been a loss of approximately $1 million of buying power due to inflation alone. Unfortunately, subscription price increases have exceeded the inflation rate during that time period, so loss of buying power is actually much higher. For example, Elsevier recently claimed its average annual price increases were among the lowest in the industry at 5% per year. Using Elsevier’s estimate as a minimum, loss of ECC buying power in ten years would be a minimum of $3.4 million.

With at least $3.4 million loss of purchasing power, the core collection has had to be modified over time in order to stay within the $5 million budget, pushing the costs of core information resources onto individual campuses, with many campuses losing access altogether. A recent example is the cancellation of LexisNexis Academic Universe—an online service composed of approximately 5000 full text legal, news, reference, and business sources—in 2017. Nineteen campuses were not able to retain subscriptions to LexisNexis.

See the full list of databases that have been cut from the ECC at the bottom of this document.

 

What’s happening with the ECC budget for 2019-2020?

The ECC is facing more than $600,000 in cuts in 2019-20, as reserves from other budget areas that have been used in past years to cover this overage have been spent down to zero. This underfunding will translate to dropping subscriptions to several core research databases.

 

What budget increases are needed to make the ECC whole?

Increasing the ECC to $10 million would address losses in purchasing power from ten years of stagnant budgets. Increasing the ECC to $15 million would allow the system to expand access to new types of content not included in the ECC to date, such as streaming media.

 

What would the CSU libraries do with increased funding?

While decisions about ECC content are made via a shared governance process, there are several options that would serve the entire CSU system. Several core databases and journal collections that the majority of campuses pay for individually could be added. Subscriptions to emerging and in-demand content types could also be added.

 

What would it cost to make the ECC whole?

For the equivalent of $10 more per student in general funding, the ECC will provide fair and equitable access to core information resources for all CSU students and faculty, and restore access to fundamental resources for science, business, and legal research.

 

What will happen if we maintain the status quo in the ECC?

Without increased funding, the ECC will continue to shrink, information access inequities will grow across the CSU, and opportunities for system-wide purchasing efficiencies will be lost.

 

What specific databases are included in the 2018-19 ECC?

  • ABI/Inform (business)
  • Academic Search/Business Source Premier
  • Academic Complete eBooks
  • ACLS (humanities eBooks)
  • America History & Life/Historical Abstracts
  • Biological Abstracts
  • CINAHL Complete (nursing)
  • Communication & Mass Media Complete
  • CQ Researcher
  • Dissertations & Theses Abstracts
  • Ethnic NewsWatch
  • GenderWatch
  • Global Newsstream (regional, national, international news)
  • Grove (Oxford) Music
  • JSTOR (13 collections) (humanities)
  • MathSciNet
  • MLA Intl. Bibliography (humanities)
  • Mergent (business)
  • Oxford English Dictionary
  • Project Muse (humanities)
  • PsycInfo / PsycArticles
  • Safari (technology eBooks)
  • Sociological /Social Services Abstracts
  • Westlaw

 

What specific material has been cut from the ECC since 2010?

  • Encyclopedia Britannica
  • Factiva (news, business)
  • Grove’s Art
  • Hoovers and Oxford Research (business)
  • Lexis Nexis (legal, news, business)
  • Philosopher’s Index
  • Rand California

In addition, the following databases were previously partially funded via the ECC. In 2013, that funding was eliminated.

  • American Institute of Physics Journals
  • American Chemical Society Web Editions
  • Elsevier Science Direct
  • Springer
  • Wiley Interscience
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Posted on Jun 22, 2017

Resolution in Support of Student Data Privacy

On June 15, 2017, the CSU Council of Library Deans (COLD) adopted a resolution affirming “the crucial importance of privacy in the collection and retention of student data.”  CSU Library Deans will “communicate the importance of student data privacy to library staff and faculty, to students, and to the campus community” and will “encourage the creation of a publicly posted library policy on patron privacy in all CSU libraries, both online and in the physical environment.”

Full text of the resolution.

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Posted on Jun 13, 2017

OneSearch: The New CSU Library Discovery System

Long Beach, CA – Coming this summer, all 23 of the California State University (CSU) library collections will be integrated into new Library Discovery System called OneSearch.

As a joint effort led by the CSU Council of Library Deans, the primary goal of this upgrade is to enrich the research experience of students while assisting faculty and staff in their scholarly and professional pursuits.

OneSearch features an intuitive, mobile-friendly interface that makes it easy to find, cite, save, and share books, ebooks, ejournals, articles, and streaming video from the CSU Libraries.

csu-plus

OneSearch includes CSU+, a new book sharing system for the entire CSU. Through CSU+, students and faculty will have direct access to over 29 million books held by the CSU Libraries; they will be able to request a book from any other campus to be delivered to their home campus within 2-3 days.

“Many of the libraries are currently using catalogs that are over 20-years old,” said John Wenzler, chair of the Council of Library Deans. “By migrating from these outdated systems, we can improve access for students, faculty, and staff, in a more user-friendly interface.”

Gale Etschmaier, library dean at San Diego State University, said, “This is truly a revolutionary initiative that will transform academic libraries across the CSU. OneSearch is a powerful tool that will advance research, discovery, and academic achievement.”

Gerry Hanley, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Technology Services for the CSU said, “Our big and important goal is to support equity across all campuses so all CSU students, faculty and staff have equally successful, innovative, and powerful library services for learning, teaching, and scholarly activities.”

CSU libraries can expect to see this upgrade in June of 2017. For more information, please see Unified Library Management System.

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Posted on Nov 16, 2016

CSU Council of Library Deans Passes Resolution in Support of Open Access for CSU Faculty Publications

Open access refers to free, online public access to scholarly and scientific works in open access journals (gold open access) and university repositories (green open access). All CSU campuses have open access institutional repositories. Open access resolutions and policies for faculty are currently in place at more than 200 American universities, including a mandatory (opt-out) policy for the entire UC system, as well as resolutions at a small number of CSU campuses.

On October 27, 2016, the CSU Council of Library Deans (COLD) unanimously voted for a resolution in support of Open Access for CSU Faculty Publications. The CSU libraries are committed to increasing equitable access to scholarly research by supporting faculty efforts to publish in Open Access Journals and Repositories.

Full text of the resolution (PDF).

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