Responsibilities of VIVA Collections Contacts
Last updated October 27, 2015
Each member of the VIVA Collections Committee is assigned the role of collection contact or resource manager for resources licensed or purchased by VIVA. Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:
- General
a. Talk with the libraries in your institution type (doctoral, four year, two year, private) to gather opinions about current and potential resources
b. Communicate the decisions made in CoCo out to the libraries in your institution type
- New products
a. Determine if the product is a good fit for VIVA
i. How many VIVA institutions currently subscribe?
ii. Who recommended the product [i.e., librarian, institution]?
iii. How does it relate to other VIVA products?
iv. Are there acceptable licensing terms, such as for ILL, course reserves, remote access, unlimited simultaneous users, DRM?
b. Evaluate the product
i. Product reviews
ii. Identify and compare competing products
iii. Overlap analysis to current VIVA products and to competing products
iv. Discuss the product with current customers
v. How do patrons find and access the information (e.g., MARC records, where indexed, compatible with which discovery tools)?
vi. Additional materials offered by the same vendor that might be useful
vii. How unique is the product? Would it be appropriate as a sole-source acquisition?
viii. Is there free trial access?
ix. Is there mobile access?
x. Is it ADA compliant?
xi. Are there reliable, COUNTER-compliant usage statistics made available in a timely way?
c. Evaluate the vendor
i. Experience working with consortia?
ii. Customer service responsiveness and quality
iii. Technical support responsiveness and quality
d. Cost and potential cost savings
i. Determine the cost for all of the public institutions together and the opt-in pricing for the private institutions
ii. Level of savings: determine the consortial cost compared to what institutions would pay on their own
iii. Ask vendor or publisher for list price for all public institutions to determine cost avoidance
- Renewals
a. Manage contact with the vendor sales representative
i. Make sure you have the correct representative; if the contact has changed, alert the VIVA central office
ii. VIVA will contact the representative using the chart below for an initial quote and let him or her know the deadline for a final price
| Product Quarter |
Alert to vendors |
Deadline for quotes |
| September |
June 1st |
July 15th |
| December |
September 1st |
October 15th |
| March |
December 1st |
January 15th |
| June |
March 1st |
April 15th |
b. Analyze the price
i. Keep your own spreadsheet to track key trends
ii. Review and report cost per use
iii. Review and report usage trends over time
iv. Identify and compare competing products [e.g., new competitors since VIVA subscribed?]
v. Were there problems over the past year and was the vendor responsive?
vi. Note any new content or functionality since the last renewal
c. The quote
i. Make sure that the quote includes all of the correct institutions and the correct groupings of institutions
ii. Structure the quote in the VIVA format and include a date that will print on the quote
iii. Check the vendor’s math
iv. Does the quote fit the product’s contract terms?
v. For complex cost sharing agreements, consult with VIVA Central Office to verify accuracy
d. Negotiating the best possible renewal
i. Apply the results of the analysis to make a case for a lower cost
ii. Get as low an increase as possible within the boundaries of the contract
iii. Go back again and again to get a lower price
e. Conclusion
i. Obtain the final title list and send it to VAVIRTUA-g for marketing and to the VIVA central office for posting on the vendor page
ii. Get the list price for the public institutions’ shared product
- Analysis throughout the year
a. Respond in timely manner to questions from colleagues
b. Be familiar with the title list and the product platform
c. Subscribe to the vendor newsletter or listserv
d. Meet with the vendor when you have the opportunity
e. Determine if training is necessary for the product, such as if there are product changes
f. Review usage statistics on a regular basis
g. Review the vendor page on the VIVA website and help keep it up to date
- Transition to a new resource manager
a. Share your product documents with the new resource manager
b. Discuss the contract terms for the product
c. Discuss the product and its history
d. Introduce the new resource manager to the vendor sales representative
e. Explain what the responsibilities are for resource managers
