Library managers meeting today approved recent updates to the Information Resources Working Group (IRWG) terms of reference.
In a nutshell IRWG is moving away from making decisions that are routine in nature. Examples include decisions about:
- subscriptions that are less than $1000 in value where there is a documented learning, teaching and learning and research requirement, provided these can be managed within our budget
- trialing new resources that are routine, typically smaller and specific in nature (eg relevant to 1-2 areas of the University)
IRWG’s focus areas include:
- Discussions about developments in open scholarship, OERs, transformative agreements, eTextbook provision and cancelling/unbundling packages
- Drafting papers on topics where a wider university discussion is needed
- Cancellations and recommendations for new continuing resources at the annual continuing resources review and eBooks/eBook packages which involve significant expenditure or do not meet our criteria as outlined in the eTextbook statement
- Recommending purchases from Trust funds
- Providing advice on content provision that reflects UC’s research priorities
I have left the track changes in the document so you can see what has changed (open in Word rather than the online Word app to view these).