Our member libraries have told MLS that the loss of these titles has had an impact and that returning access is important. While the MLS budget cannot absorb the cost of statewide access for these titles, we accept responsibility for assisting with negotiating terms and transitioning libraries to accepting the financial responsibility of this content. To that end, MLS is pleased to provide a subsidy to launch this project. We will provide matching funds to support the transition for up to two years. During the third and subsequent years MLS will continue to broker the negotiations, however libraries will have full responsibility for funding the service.

A range of suggested pledges is below.  If your library would like to support this purchase, but cannot afford the suggested level, please pledge an amount that you can afford.  It is important to have wide participation to make these licenses sustainable.

Please complete the survey to pledge a guaranteed amount for the newspaper licenses.  MLS will invoice libraries for their pledged amount in November 2012 for payment net 30 days. Making this pledge is equivalent to placing a purchase order with MLS.  However, if sufficient funds to purchase these annual licenses are not pledged by November 5, 2012, we will not purchase the license(s) and we will not send invoices.

If you are unable to participate this year, please fill out your information and skip to the last question about future pledges.  Members have asked that we keep access to online content stable.  If we do not have commitments from a sufficient number of libraries to create stability for the foreseeable future, we will not be able to proceed.

A trial of this ProQuest content, as well as a list of titles, usage statistics and a link to the pledge survey, is available at www.masslibsystem.org/newspapers.  Please note that the trial site also includes access to the Boston Globe.  If we are successful at launching this statewide collaborative purchase, this is how the new Massachusetts Newsstand will be integrated with the statewide license for the Boston Globe.   Access to the Boston Globe will continue regardless of the success of the collaborative purchase.

Webinar:  MLS and ProQuest are hosting two webinars to provide an introduction to this content and to give members and opportunity to ask questions about the service or the collaborative purchase.  If you would like to participate in the Webinar with other members and MLS representatives, please plan to attend:

October 17, 2012 – MLS-Marlborough – 3:00-4:30pm
October 24, 2012 – MLS-Whately – 11:00-12:30pm

Statistics for use of much of this content under last year’s statewide license is available at:  www.masslibsystem.org/newspapers. The statewide license did not include the Christian Science Monitor and the Providence Journal.

We’ve been information that public libraries are able to count spending on this collaborative purchase towards the materials expenditure requirement.

Questions? Call MLS at 508-357-2121 or 866-627-7228 (Mass. only)

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MLS is unable to cover the entire cost for this content.  Our goal is to solicit pledges from members to cover most of the cost this year and use MLS matching funds to make up the difference.  We are aware of the fact that many members have licensed some of this content at their own expense already and that it will be impossible for them to cover any part of these costs this year.  MLS will be able to provide matching funds in the first and second year of this project.  If this project is successful and the content is valuable to members, we expect that members will cover the entire cost by the third year.

An email with pledge information was sent to directors and primary contacts of Massachusetts libraries. We ask that only individuals authorized to commit funds to this project submit pledges.

We’ve been informed that public libraries are able to count spending on this collaborative purchase towards the materials expenditure requirement.

The content we plan to provide includes 172 NewsBank Massachusetts titles.  You can see a complete list of titles included and try them yourself by visiting a trial page at the following link:

http://www.masslibsystem.org/statewide-newspaper-procurement/

At this time, ProQuest is only able to provide pricing for statewide access to public and school libraries. We have decided to move ahead without ProQuest for this reason. We have asked ProQuest to reconsider. If we receive pricing for statewide access for all libraries, we will provide another pledge opportunity for the ProQuest content.

If you have any questions, please contact MLS at 866-627-7228 or email newspapers@masslibsystem.org.

Thanks in advance for your participation.

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We have yet to receive pricing from NewsBank but have been told to expect it by next week.

ProQuest sent pricing that was valid for only nine days ending June 30th.  This did not give MLS sufficient time to plan a collaborative purchase program.  We asked ProQuest to extend the offer and they declined.  We now await a new price quote.  Our representative hopes to have prices to us by next week.

It is clear that these vendors are aggressively selling their products to individual libraries as MLS awaits the information we need to plan a collaborative purchase.

We will inform you as soon as we have pricing and we will provide an online form for libraries to pledge a reasonable amount to participate.  The pledge request will be based on user base size for a library and whether or not a title in these vendors’ collections covers your library’s community.

We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience.  We hope we can finalize this program as soon as possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

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MLS recently co-hosted an event with New England News Forum and Journalism That Matters on the Common Goals of Libraries and Journalism.  We hope that partnerships that allow libraries/patrons to have access to important newspapers and other online local resources become more widespread.   See our site for videos of the presentations.

In the meantime, we know some libraries are negotiating to provide direct access to local newspapers with various vendors.  My suggestion, in addition to other contracting/licensing needs in your library, are to consider requesting the ability to receive a prorated refund (not credit) if a statewide license period overlaps with yours and that your library be licensed to use the content to fulfill interlibrary loan requests.

License Resources:

Okerson, Ann, What Academic Libraries Need in Electronic Content Licenses

Copyright Crash Course, University of Texas

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ONLINE VENDOR TRAINING & WEBINARS
A clearing house of training resources for all the state-wide databasaes can be found on the MBLC’s website here: http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/how.php

Database set-up tips and news can be found on the MBLC Statewide Electronic Resources Blog: http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/licenses/blog/

Encyclopaedia Britannica

• find links to webinars, handouts, step-by-step guides at EB Educators Resources site: http://info.eb.com/html/educators.html

Gale InfoTrac

• their main support site includes online & off-line training as well as promotional material: http://www.support.gale.com/gale/index.html
• for additional set-up and technical issues see Gale’s Massachusetts support portal at: http://access.gale.com/mblc/
• Use the URL below to access Gale’s recorded webinars and live webinar calendar.  All sessions are free! http://www.cengagesites.com/CL/790/gale-cengage-library-training/webinars/
• Webinars presented for the MLS by Stacey Knibloe, Customer Education Specialist, Gale Cengage.  [Play these videos using the latest version of Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or VLC.]
  • Gale’s Health Resources: What You Don’t Know (10/28/11) [MP4 video]
  • Gale Literature Resources: Going Beyond Lit Crit (1/19/12) [MP4 video]
  • Getting Patrons to use Gale Resources (10/28/11) [MP4 video]

ProQuest The Boston Globe

• this site includes webinars, tutorials, and training materials. Navigate to: Search Training and Recorded Webinars >> News & newspapers >> ProQuest Newsstand: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/support/training/default.shtml

WORKSHOPS

MLS & MBLC sponsored workshops
Click HERE for current workshops on the MLS EventKeeper site.

HANDOUTS

Tips, tricks, and examples for librarians using InfroTrac & Mass. Newsstand
Created by MLS staff, available on MLS workshop handouts website:
http://www.masslibsystem.org/continuing-education/mls-ce-handouts/#dbs

If you need further assistant, please contact:
Rick Levine, Scott Kehoe, or Diana Davis at the MLS, or Marlene Heroux, at the MBLC.

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The MLS Executive Board decided at its May meeting not to renew two online newspapers.  Access to these titles will end on June 30th.

•  Springfield Republican
• Cape Cod Times

This decision was the result of accepting the recommendation of the MLS Online Advisory Committee, which provided two main reasons:

• Use was too low for the quoted price.
• There is an equity issue because many local communities are losing access to newspapers when the ProQuest Massachusetts Newsstand service ends on June 30th and, MLS, as a statewide organization, needs to keep a statewide focus.

Because access to local news content is so important to libraries, the Executive Board also moved to ask the Advisory Committee to seek alternative solutions to allow access to these and other online newspapers.  MLS will be working with the Committee and vendors to seek such access, perhaps via a collaborative purchase arrangement.

We will keep you posted on our progress.

Thanks,
Greg
 

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A big thank you to all library staffs that participated in the process (see more about this in the press release). MLS member libraries will be receiving a letter at the end of this month with more details about the products and access.

The full list of titles that all residents and MLS member libraries will have access to is as follows:

Gale Cengage
Academic OneFile
Biography In Context
Books and Authors
Business and Company Resource Center
Contemporary Literary Criticism Select
Educator’s Reference Complete
Expanded Academic
Gale Powerpacks in assorted subject areas
General BusinessFile
General OneFile
Global Issues In Context
Health and Wellness Resource Center with Alternative Health
Health Reference Center Academic
InfoTrac Junior
The New York Times
Kids InfoBits
Literature Resource Center
Massachusetts History Online
Nursing Resource Center (new to Massachusetts libraries)
Opposing Viewpoints In Context
Science in Context
U. S. History In Context
World History In Context
50 Selected Gale Virtual Reference Library titles (titles forthcoming)

ProQuest, Inc.
The Boston Globe

Encyclopaedia Britannica
Britannica Online School Edition, PLUS read-aloud at all levels and translation for over 50 languages
Britannica Learning Zone (early childhood interactive learning resource)
Britannica Online Public Library, Edition PLUS read-aloud at all levels and translation for over 50 languages
Britannica Spanish Reference Center (Includes Enciclopedia Moderna, a reference collection for the high school and college ages and Escolar Online, geared to ages 6-12)
World Data Analyst (current and historical statistics on the countries of the world)
Annals of America (online Access to Original Source Documents From U.S. History)
Britannica Online Mobile Edition

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Products from eight vendors are on trial from December 5 – 22, 2011, and your input is important. We encourage you and your colleagues to conduct searches on the trial sites and complete evaluations for products under consideration.

For more information and to participate in the trials, please call MLS-866-627-7228.

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