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Digital archival collections group purchasing scheme

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Collectively lowering the cost of acquiring digital archival collections.

Visit the Jisc Collections catalogue

For enquiries contact:

About the scheme

Digital archival collections of primary source material are an important complement to traditional resources like journals and books. However, limited budgets make the purchase of these often-expensive content resources difficult.

By working in collaboration with publishers we are making these collections more affordable. Our approach is community-centred and based on the simple market principle: the more products that are purchased, the lower the price for those participating.

The scheme runs from November to July of each academic year and guarantees a minimum saving of 20% off the list price of all the products on offer, with the potential to expand to beyond 30% depending on uptake.

Who is this scheme for?

The scheme means that librarians can afford to invest in these collections, achieving more with a smaller budget.

As a result, researchers, teachers and learners can all benefit from access to a wider range of resources.

The scheme is open to all higher education members as defined in the Jisc banding information.

Benefits of the scheme

Following two successful pilots, a multi-year framework is in place increasing both the number of publishers involved and products on offer.

Key benefits include:

  • Substantial savings - pilot participants saved a total of £458,000 overall. That’s an average of 31% year-on-year off publisher’s list prices
  • All titles are a one-off purchase with no recurrent platform/hosting fee
  • Members of the scheme collectively help each other drive down the cost by leveraging the power of group purchasing
  • A more efficient, coordinated and transparent approach to the acquisition of digital archival collections
  • Members can easily compare products on offer
  • Based on a simplified and uniform approach (Jisc model license) to procuring and licensing collections from multiple publishers.

For a complete overview of the scope and features of the group purchasing scheme please refer to the digital archival collections group purchasing scheme buyer's guide.

Browse the available collections

Visit the catalogue pages on the Jisc Collections website to review the products on offer:

Additional publishers will be announced shortly.

All orders must be placed through the Jisc Collections website to confirm the order with the final cumulative discount determined at the end of financial year.

All prices are for one-off purchases and include platform/hosting fees and are covered by a Jisc model license.

Find out more

For more information contact Karen Colbron, digital content manager (karen.colbron@jisc.ac.uk).