The group purchasing scheme to date
As we launch the 2021/2022 digital archival collections group purchasing scheme, let’s take a moment to reflect on the scheme so far. Over 1/3rd of our higher education members have collectively saved over £0.8 million on the acquisition of products offered through the group purchasing scheme. Additionally, of these, more than 1/3rd have also used the scheme across multiple years to buy digital archival collections for use in learning, teaching and research.
The scheme has been used by higher education members across nearly every Jisc band, with institutions in band 5 accounting for over 1/3rd of take-up. Thirds seem to be a popular number for the group purchasing scheme.
Our core principle is the collective power our members bring to drive down the cost of acquiring digital archival collections. All eligible members are offered an initial 20% discount off the list price. This increases as members buy more products from the publisher, no matter what Jisc band they are part of . Typically, members will receive approximately 25% discount however this will vary depending on each publisher’s sales. This year one institution helped all other participating institutions, as well as themselves, to benefit from a 30% discount off one publisher’s products.
The scheme runs from November to July each year when the final discounts are calculated. It’s important that the scheme represents genuine one-time purchases, so members don’t have to budget for year-on-year charges to access the materials, therefore all content bought through the scheme are one-off costs with no recurring platform fees.
The 2021/22 group purchasing scheme
The scheme offers a myriad of content choices, as well as size and price of collections on offer. This year there are over 60 products on offer. Subjects include colonialism, history of science, early manuscripts, , world wars, the Middle East, historical global newspapers, cinema, television, and music. Such as:
BBC Handbooks and the Soviet cinema Kino-Zhurnal Journal;
Berlin’s Vossische Zeitung and Irish Radical Newspapers;
Colonial Law in Africa and Apartheid through the eyes of South African political parties;
Life under Nazi Rule and the Josef Goebbels Diaries;
Middle Eastern Manuscripts and Middle East Newspapers;
Pre-1600 Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Philosophy & Theology books, and the New York Academy of Sciences
New products to the scheme this year are:
British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939-2009;
Hongkong Weekly News Online;
Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online 4: The Shangoda Collections from Dagestan;
Records from the Bethlem Royal Hospital, 1559-1932
Find out more about the 60+ products on offer at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/digital-archival-collections-group-purchasing including links to the catalogue pages on License subscriptions manager https://subscriptionsmanager.jisc.ac.uk/ for all participating publishers.
