October 2, 2000

To: Joe Jax, Chair

Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries

From: Bob Rose, Chair

CUWL Customized Database Task Force

Re: Task Force Report

Following is a summary of the activities of the CUWL Customized Database Task Force and recommendations for its future:

Background:

In 1998, CUWL members heard about and expressed considerable interest in the Journal Access Core Collection (JACC) being developed by the California State University System. This was one of the first attempts made at a system level to be the driving force in establishing a customized database of full-text electronic journals to serve the needs of a university constituency - rather than simply accepting database content determined by a particular vendor. The end result of the CSU project was essentially a subscription to no more than what was already available to University of Wisconsin users, i.e., EBSCOHost Academic Search journals, but it was an interesting first step in this effort.

In late 1999, CUWL decided to appoint a Customized Database Task Force in an attempt to work with publishers in the creation of a full-text database that would support the UW curriculum. The original members of the task force were: Denise Babin (UW-Milwaukee), Lorie Docken (UWSA), Anita Evans (UW-La Crosse), Ken Grant (UW-Baraboo), Abigail Loomis (UW-Madison), Terri Muraski (UW-Stout), Sarah Neises (UW-Oshkosh), Joan Robb (UW-Green Bay), and Bob Rose (UW-Eau Claire). During the course of its work, Abigail Loomis was replaced by Ann Combs (UW-Madison Health Sciences Libraries), Terri Muraski resigned after a substantial portion of the committee’s work was completed, and Lori Voss (UWSA) joined the task force.

Database Development

The Task Force had its initial formal meeting on February 10, 2000. At that meeting, task force members decided on an approach different from the one taken by the CSU, namely to identify a subject area with currently inadequate access to electronic journals in its field rather than to develop a general database that might duplicate existing products. After discussing a number of such disciplines, task force members agreed to pursue creation of a customized database for nursing and allied health fields, in specific support of the UW curriculum through the Masters degree level. The specific sub-fields to be included were:

Communication Disorders/Speech Therapy

Community Health/Wellness

Health Education

Medical Technician

Nursing

Nutrition

Occupational Therapy

Physical Therapy

Physician’s Assistants

Public Health

Sports Medicine

Vocational Rehabilitation

Once this approach received general approval from the CUWL membership, Task Force members took responsibility for individual subject fields and developed lists that included title, ISSN, publisher, and full text availability. Those lists were then merged to create a list of 292 journals that would be part of a Health Care Research Database. That list was previously distributed to CUWL members.

Database Evaluation

In order to determine whether or not database vendors would be interested in supplying such a customized database, the Task Force – under the guidance of Lorie Docken and Lori Voss – developed a Request for Information document that was sent to the following potential suppliers of such a database: Bell & Howell, EBSCO, Gale, OCLC, and Ovid. The responses to the RFI were disappointing, to say the least. Bell & Howell, EBSCO, and OCLC chose not to respond. Gale indicated it could supply only a small percentage of the total journals and essentially suggested that we purchase one of their existing products. Ovid indicated they could supply all 292 titles but closer investigation indicated this was not true and that they could supply fewer than a hundred with a fair number of those requiring rights negotiations with individual publishers.

Task Force Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on its work and the results of the RFI, the Customized Database Task Force believes that it is impractical to pursue this particular project any further and recommends that the task force be disbanded. We regret recommending that the task force be disbanded, not only because we failed to achieve the desired results but because the work done by task force members represented a very large time commitment on their respective parts. We believe the marketplace is not quite ready to tackle this particular kind of discipline-based customized database - although it may be ready in another year or two. Unfortunately, at this point it appears there are simply not enough publishers in nursing and allied health fields either with electronic versions of their print products and/or with agreements with database vendors to make available their resources in electronic form.

We recommend that the Collection Development Committee continue to work with publishers to try to meet collection needs in this area. We believe that the CINAHL database offers the most potential to be developed into a more comprehensive full-text database and encourage the CDC and others, such as nursing and allied health faculty, to assist in the effort to speed up the process of its development in this direction. Bell & Howell is particularly interested in providing CINAHL to the UW libraries and we may be able to leverage that interest into their working more rapidly to provide full-text journals through that database.

While the Task Force did not succeed in creating a customized database, we do not believe our work was in vain. Several campuses have used this list as one factor in the periodical selection process. We believe that it would be useful to share the results of our efforts with the library community and will be looking at potential publishing opportunities in that regard. We further believe that the opportunity to develop customized databases will exist in the future and recommend that the CDC be cognizant of that opportunity. Unfortunately, that time does not yet appear to be here.