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.
This paper describes the cost-benefits and the return on investment of one consortium comprised of five separately administered libraries in the University of Colorado (CU) System. With a long history of collaboration, the libraries have developed an ideal cooperative arrangement for acquiring electronic content that is accessible across all campuses. The size and flexibility of this institution-based consortium allows it to be responsive and successful in collaborating across four campuses despite different sized budgets and unique local and institutional constraints. To demonstrate the value of jointly leveraging library budgets to university administrators, the authors conducted a consortium level cost-benefit analysis and describe the methodology used to quantify return on the university's investment. This paper addresses both qualitative and quantitative outcomes and underscores how consortial participation has become an essential way of doing business.
In the spring of 1993, five libraries in the University of Colorado multi-campus system explored ways to provide expedited interlibrary loan (ILL) for materials owned collectively. As a result, a pilot study was launched to evaluate the feasibility of employing commercial document delivery as an alternative to ILL, and as a possible solution to the growing need for expedited information delivery. The goal of this study was to determine if a significant number of interlibrary loan requests could be supplied by commercial vendors reliably, cost effectively, and quickly. The results showed that libraries with small collections, large populations, and general patron needs could fill a high percentage of requests using commercial suppliers, while libraries with research or specialized needs experienced differing success rates depending on the titles and coverage offered by each service in the study.
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