Federal Libraries Consortium

What's New at FLC

Procurement and Licensing of Electronic Resources Working Group

Terms of Reference

1. Background
In the context of an evolving Canadian public administration in the digital age, LAC has legislated responsibility to coordinate library service for the federal government. Libraries are located in departments and agencies and are organized to meet the specific information needs of the host department. In this way, they are best situated to assist departments to achieve their business goals by ensuring that employees have access to the authoritative, trusted and timely information they need. LAC works in partnership with federal libraries to foster excellence in GC library services, to identify common objectives and to build and implement horizontal solutions. In order to ensure that these horizontal solutions respond to GC needs, the ADM, Corporate Management and Government Records Sector, LAC will establish an ADM level advisory committee to provide direction and guidance to the coordination of library services.

2. Context
The availability of information in a variety of formats from a variety of sources is key to libraries achieving that role. In particular, access to electronic information resources is critical. The number and variety of electronic publications and databases is steadily increasing, as are the number of commercial providers. Federal libraries now purchase access to a steadily growing range of electronic information resources, negotiating complex license agreements on behalf of their departments. These resources are then made available to federal public servants at the desktop.

The complexity of the agreements is due to a number of factors:

• Electronic information resources are most frequently obtained from sole source providers.
• The providers offer continual access to a constantly growing collection of information (e.g. an electronic journal published on a biweekly basis).
• Their pricing is linked to an annual publishing cycle, and full payment is normally required in advance.

Contracting, in the context of the Government of Canada, is increasingly complex as well. These factors - electronic publishing, complex license agreements, contracting in the federal government - together cause delays that impede libraries' ability to serve decision-makers. Resulting problems such as expired subscriptions, gaps in collections, penalties imposed by publishers all hinder the provision of needed information.

It is proposed that a working group co-chaired by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) be established to identify the issues and propose solutions.

3. Mandate

• Investigate and define the scope of current GC information products and services procurement and licensing issues;
• Identify and prioritize the issues;
• Study the issues and propose solutions that will ensure that federal employees have continual access to high-quality electronic information.

4. Desired Outcomes

• Federal government employees obtain access to the information that they require;
• PWGSC and the federal library community work collaboratively to define solutions;
• Efficiency and productivity gains are realized in both the Library and contacting areas; and
• Procurement and licensing of electronic information products meet the requirements of the Government of Canada.

5. Proposed Deliverables

• June 30^th: preliminary report on requirements for effective procurement of electronic information resources, and work plan for the summer months.
• October 10^th: Final report including options on how to proceed and an action plan.
• Guide to the most effective practices of procurement and licensing of electronic information products
• Information sessions for the federal library and procurement communities and PWGSC

6. Membership (proposed)

Co-Chairs: PWGSC Procurement and LAC (Recordkeeping and Federal Libraries Coordination)

Participants: director or manager-level representatives of the Federal Libraries Consortium (LAC), CISTI (National Research Council), Strategic Alliance of Science and Technical Libraries, and representatives from selected departments (e.g. Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Industry Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Privy Council Office, Statistics Canada, Justice Canada, DFAIT) who are responsible for library services.

Secretariat: Federal Libraries Consortium (LAC)

7. External Support

Given the nature of the complex issues to be discussed, there may be a need for external support (facilitation, report writing…) and these costs will be borne by LAC.

8. Schedule

• Meetings will be scheduled every two to three weeks - beginning Mid-April - until the end of June.
• The summer months will be used to flesh out the issues identified in the preliminary report.
• Meetings will begin in September and will meet every two weeks until delivery of final recommendations to the ADMs LAC and PWGSC.

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List of members

Co-Chairs

Fabio Onesi
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 819-934-7517
Email: fabio.onesi@bac-lac.gc.ca

Pierre R. Tremblay
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Telephone: 819-956-6098
Email: pierre.r.tremblay@pwgsc.gc.ca

Committee Members

Corinne Cameron
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Telephone: 819-956-1470
Email: corinne.cameron@pwgsc.gc.ca

Lucie Molgat
NRC - CISTI
Telephone: 613-991-2462
Email: lucie.molgat@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Diane Rudzevicius
Industry Canada
Telephone: 613-941-4624
Email: rudzevicius.diane@ic.gc.ca

Michele Sura
Privy Council Office
Telephone: 613-957-5133
Email: msura@pco-bcp.gc.ca

Fiona McPherson
Justice Canada
Telephone: 613-957-4611
Email: fiona.mcpherson@justice.gc.ca

Alison Hale
Canadian Transportation Agency
Telephone: 819-953-0482
Email: alison.hale@cta-otc.gc.ca

Eileen Bays-Coutts
Finance, TBS, CPSA
Telephone: 613-995-6015
Email: Eileen.Bays-Coutts@fin.gc.ca

Marc Carrière
Public Works and Governement Services Canada
Telephone: 819-956-7307
Email: marc.carriere@pwgsc.gc.ca

Marc Lepage
CIDA
Telephone: 819-997-7499
Email: marc_lepage@acdi-cida.gc.ca

Anne-Josée L'Écuyer
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 819-934-4435
Email: anne-josee.lecuyer@bac-lac.gc.ca

Gaya Déry
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 613-992-8877
Email: gaya.dery@bac-lac.gc.ca

Anne Pichora
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 613-992-8877
Email: anne.pichora@bac-lac.gc.ca

Katherine Miller-Gatenby
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 819-934-7518
Email: katherine.miller-gatenby@bac-lac.gc.ca

Deane Zeeman
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 819-934-4358
Email: deane.zeeman@bac-lac.gc.ca

Secretary
Anne Chartrand
Library and Archives Canada
Telephone: 819-934-7444
Email: anne.chartrand@lac-bac.ca