Collections Committee Guidelines for Cancellations
VIVA follows a set of guidelines that serves as the core values when resources need to be cancelled during periods of budget exigencies. VIVA will make every effort to provide the members as much warning as possible in order to make local arrangements if appropriate and inform users of changes in resources. The guidelines are:
- Minimize the impact. VIVA will protect resources that are widely used and that support academic programs across the greatest number and type of member campuses. Each service retained by VIVA must offer something unique to higher education in Virginia.
- Content over convenience. VIVA will make every effort to reduce the costs of content before eliminating content entirely.
- Vendor performance and licensing and pricing policies. The vendor must be responsive to VIVA concerns. Other factors include: the quality of the product platform; low or no digital rights management; the reliability of service; willingness to negotiate on price; and the availability of usage statistics.
- Content over indexing. Taking cost into account, electronic journals and other content sources will be valued more highly by VIVA than indexing and abstracting databases.
- Control overall spend on product. VIVA will attempt to ensure that the Commonwealth does not spend more on a product if VIVA cancels. VIVA will explore resource and cost-sharing strategies, when appropriate, for valued resources. The overall level of discount is important and must be high enough to justify the spending of VIVA money.
Originally drafted March 7, 2002, updated in 2007/08, updated July 8, 2014
