Yem S. Fong

Library fee‐based information services: financial considerations

Fee‐based services in libraries offer research and document delivery services to non‐primary clientele on a cost‐recovery basis. Highlights services at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Rice University and Purdue University. Explores the major financial considerations involved in starting a new fee‐based service, including planning, staffing, pricing and marketing. Relates several special opportunities to which the libraries could not have responded without having had an existing fee‐based service with experienced staff in place. Also examines Internet opportunities.

The Alliance Shared Purchase Plan: A New Experiment in Collaborative Collection Development

Beginning in fall 2006, the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries piloted a shared purchase plan designed to manage duplication of monographs and enhance the consortial collection. The plan covered only undergraduate books in four subject areas. Two vendors, YBP and Blackwell, participated in the project. YBP covered economics and religion; Blackwell, political science and mathematics. Distribution of books was based upon individual institutional profiles, the dollar amount allocated to the project by each institution, and anticipated usage. While analysis of project data suggests that the pilot did not meet its collection goals, the project is leading to other collaborative efforts.

Patron‐Driven E‐book Solutions: Moving Beyond the Banana Books Incident

The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries participated in one of the first patron‐driven acquisition initiatives offered by netLibrary in the late 1990s. One outcome of this patron‐driven pilot was the banana books incident which has now become part of popular collection development lore. This incident will be described more fully and will highlight the difficulties of establishing demand‐driven models that are divorced from an institution’s approval plans. More recently, the University of Colorado has taken the lessons learned from the banana books snafu and has developed institution specific solutions for patron selection and use of e‐books. This paper will discuss strate‐ gies for integrating e‐books into subject and publisher based approval profiles with Ingram‐Coutts and the My iLi‐ brary platform. The paper will also address the complexities of customizing 70 profiles that are a combination of print, e‐preferred, e‐patron‐driven with Coutts and 30 selectors.

Emerging trends in fee-based information delivery

Abstract Fee-based information services in libraries will face many challenges in continuing to offer value-added, cost-effective services to customers during the opening decade of the new millennium. Some of the challenges are similar to those faced by other library units, but others are unique. Many of these are related to the proliferation of electronic resources and to the “do-it-yourself” approach customers have toward them. Other issues that must be addressed include shifts in client expectations; the demand for new types of information services and products; unresolved intellectual property issues; evolving means of providing access, delivery, and distribution; the need to form innovative partnerships; and the increasing globalization of the customer base.

Race, class, gender and librarianship: Teaching in ethnic studies

Summary Librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder promote diversity through activism on campus and through teaching, col-laboratively and individually. This article features the experiences of a librarian who twice taught a full credit course in the Department of Ethnic Studies. The author explores the challenges of moving beyond the library to support diversity, and considers how teaching in ethnic studies informs librarianship.