Eliminating Administrative Churn: The “Big Deal” and Database Subscriptions

In the ongoing battle to control escalating costs for library resources, librarians often focus only on the purchase or subscription price of a resource and the annual inflation rates. Though these are important factors, the price libraries pay for a resource is not the only measure of its cost. The time acquisitions personnel spend negotiating with vendors, running and initiating trials, activating new packages, reviewing licenses, and engaging in other activities are also significant, though often overlooked, cost components. These behind-the-scenes activities constitute “administrative churn” that is just as costly, and in some cases more so, than the more visible and familiar initial acquisition costs. In 2009, collections personnel at the Texas A&M University Libraries initiated a discussion with a major database vendor aimed at achieving savings by reducing this churn. The result was an agreement now known as the “ProQuest Comprehensive” package. This article will reflect on this agreement and evaluate whether the Texas A&M University Libraries met its objectives by initiating this program.