openCost: Navigating Cost Transparency

Charting the library systems landscape including OA infrastructures

Not scheduled

3m

3 Minute Madness

Speaker

Silke Weisheit (University Library of Regensburg)

Description

The working group ‘Systemlandschaft E-Ressourcen’ aims to achieve a better understanding of data exchange processes in the management of electronic resources (including e-journals, e-books, and databases). This is accomplished by systematically collecting, analyzing, and documenting data flows, including cost-related data, to enable academic libraries to visualize workflows, identify dependencies, and increase transparency and efficiency in managing resources. As part of this effort, the working group has developed a map for navigating complex systems and data flows, including cost-related information.

The working group was established by the Electronic Journals Library (EZB), the AG Verbundsysteme (AGV) and the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB). Cooperative structures, optimized data flows and uniform terminology and formats are intended to facilitate the daily work of academic libraries in the future, as well as systematic evaluations for a wide variety of purposes, such as university controlling, cost transparency or the Open Access transformation.

To this end, the working group is first bringing together as many relevant public service providers, institutions and projects as possible with the aim of developing a system map to visualize the data exchange processes between library systems. A questionnaire was developed in order to describe all data flows, including those involving cost information, between relevant systems in as structured and neutral manner as possible. The survey results have been analyzed and the system map now lists 71 systems and 164 data flows.

The poster shows how useful the system map can be as a tool for understanding complex relationships, such as data exchange processes between library systems, enabling exploratory work with data. With a focus on Open Access infrastructures, the poster explains how the system map can support the planning of projects or the assessment of effort, risks and impacts when making system adjustments.