The library actively seeks opportunities to leverage its funds, and the most important opportunities arise in the areas of library acquisitions. Here are some important ways the library is able to leverage its funds: Working with Agents The library uses reputable, highly respected agents for the majority of both book and journal acquisitions. These agents save us considerable money in three key ways: Staffing: because agents routinely work with many of the hundreds of publishers whose output we purchase, and have electronic purchasing systems that can transmit data both to publishers’ and our own library online systems, they enable significant efficiencies for our local staff. Without these agents, we would need to deal with publishers one-on-one for every purchase, which would greatly increase our local staffing needs. Discounts and credits: our agents provide attractive discount rates based on the volume of business we do with them each year, and the timing of our payments to them. Service charges: an agent bases services charges on the volume of business we do with them. The total of our service charges is a tiny fraction of the cost of "doing-it-all-ourselves" and is more than offset by the discounts and credits the agents are able to provide. Working With Other Libraries in Consortium Arrangements: Most library consortia broker acquisitions of specific electronic products, such as databases, online reference books, and electronic journal packages, on behalf of their members. They are often able to negotiate far more favorable terms than a publisher will offer to an individual library. Many, though not all, publishers will prefer to negotiate with a single entity, such as a consortium, over negotiating with libraries individually. The agreements reached always involve contractual obligations on the part of the publisher, the consortium, and the individual member libraries, and will often require multi-year contracts which provide a predictable income stream to the publisher, and a predictable expenditure stream for the libraries. Here are three of Western’s Libraries important consortial arrangements: Orbis Cascade Alliance: This consortium of 34 academic libraries in Washington and Oregon provides the "Summit" catalog and the patron-initiated service that makes borrowing a book from any of the member libraries so easy. Alliance staff, working with its Electronic Resources Group (a committee with one member from each Alliance library), negotiates favorable terms for a number of the databases Western provides for its patrons. During FY2007, Western purchased some 25 of the electronic databases it offers (some full text) through the Alliance. While the savings varied greatly, for some databases they were as much as 46% off the publisher’s list price. The Alliance also works with its member to provide important electronic journal access contracts. For the price we pay for our independent subscriptions to Springer journals plus a small premium, we are able to offer access to almost all the journals Springer publishes. On similar terms, we are able to offer access to all Cambridge University Press and Sage Press journals. A contract with Wiley Interscience allows us to provide electronic access to all the Wiley journals to which Alliance partner libraries subscribe. For our $51,000 Wiley investment, we receive access to over $590,000 worth of Wiley titles. Washington State Cooperative Library Project (CLP): This grouping of the six publicly funded Washington State baccalaureate institutions is not legally a consortium. However, some publishers have been willing to work with us as a group. The CLP, by deciding as a group to purchase one major suite of databases (currently the ProQuest suite, which includes ABI/Inform and a significant newspaper package), effects considerable cost savings. This purchase is made from state funding direct to the CLP as a group, rather than local funds. The CLP has also brokered a small number of other contracts on behalf of the six libraries, which have recently been transferred to the Orbis Cascade Alliance. Western also benefits from the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) membership of the University of Washington and Washington State University (GWILA membership is only open to large research libraries in the Midwest and Western states). A small number of publishers will provide Western a discount based on our CLP membership. Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR): This consortium has as members academic, public, research and school libraries from 11 states, from Iowa and Kansas to Alaska and Oregon. BCR offers a number of member services. Western makes use of its ability to offer special pricing for some electronic databases and reference titles which neither the Alliance nor the CLP is able to offer. Again, the savings vary from small to substantial.

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