More from the last ICOLC meeting....

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Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 23:51:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ann Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ICOLC#10-Grove's
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Groves Dictionaries
ICOLC#10
October 6, 2001
8:15 - 9:15 a.m.

Note: See below for Grove's sales figures.  They seem surpringly
low for such major, industry-standard reference products.

Jim Hurtt, Groves & Macmillan Online Publishing
Director of Consortial Sales

Grove's in the U.S. is prohibited from selling under the Macmillan name
(because Macmillan in the U.S. is a separate company).  Grove's is owned
by Macmillan U.K., which is owned by Von Holtzbrinck in Germany.  This is
the same company that owns Nature.  Jim's group markets the following
products:
* Grove's Dictionaries
* Nature Publishing Group Reference
* Scientific American Online

Grove Dictionary of Art:
* Launched in 11/98
* Digitized the print Grove Dictionary of Art
* E-version contains 100,000 images from the Bridgeman Art Library
* 55,000 images via external links to Museum web sites
* 2500 images added each quarter
* Very broad ranging art topics (incl. native art, picture frames, etc)
(The first product was to be Music, but Art jumped the queue)

Art:  Subscriptions and consortial sales in 1999:
* 14 consortia (comprising 476 libraries)
* 50% of Grove's sales from consortial sales = 25% of revenues
* GALILEO subscribed to Dictionary of Art

Subscriptions and consortial sales in 2000:
* 13 networks and 9 consortia
* 51% of sales supplied by these consortial deals
* Alliance of Library Networks - 258 subscriptions

Subscriptions and consortial sales in 2001 YTD:
* 52% of total sales represent selling through consortia
* Sales come from the 13 Networks, Power (State of PA) consortium, and
  several other consortia

Dictionary of Art pricing
* Alliance pricing for 1 user = $855
* For 2-3 users = $998
* For 12-14 users = $2602

FTE pricing:
* Cost per FTE thru alliance $.20 per FTE minimum charge of $855.
* 2-year colleges weighted at 50%
* K-12 schools cost $850, with significant Alliance discount
* 5 % of population is weighted in the public library sector

Grovemusic.com:
* Was launched with print in January 2001
* 4500 illustrations, maps and line drawings
* 3000 web links to other related scholarly sites
* 235 sound links
* 100 enabled sound examples through Sibelius arrangement
* 387 audio piano pieces (full length) representing 25 composers

Music: subscriptions and consortial sales for 2001 YTD
* Govemusic.com was offered to 5 networks and 4 other consortia
* Offerings were complicated by need to sell print sets
* 10 consortia and networks represent about 19% of total sales to date
  (8/2001)
* Currently in process of offering to remaining networks and other
  consortia for fall of 2001 and 2002
* Was not an Alliance offering, though Art was

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences - from Nature Reference:
* Launched in Oct. 1999
* Offered to Alliance at $50 per subscription
* 210 subscriptions came in through Alliance
* Full ELS debuted in May 2001
* 98 subscriptions as of August through the networks
* Base list price is now $1500 (consortial discounts from 22-24%)
* Networks and consortia represent 40% of total sales

Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics:
* Debuted Feb.
* A 4-volume print set
* 3500 images
* Offered through Networks and 4 other consortia
* 26% of total sales have come through Consortia
* Print sales are doing very well

EAA college pricing tables
* Concurrent pricing models with base at $500 for 1-3 users
* Unlimited Access via FTE starts at $600
* Consortial discount starts at 20%
* Cannot technically share users across libraries

Scientific American Archive Online:
* Debuted in March 2001
* Current issues plus backfile to January 1993
* 45 subscriptions through the networks
* 49% of total sales through the Networks
* Base list price is $500
* Networks offered 30% discount

Current & future issues
* In-house rep communication
* Consortium-publisher communication
* Marketing coordination between consortia and publishers
* Consistent invoicing policy

Questions:

Q.  Do you aggregate FTE?
A.  Typically we don't but we did it with the Appalachian consortium and
it worked; we would do it again with other consortia that could otherwise
not afford the product.

Q.  Are you satisfied with the penetration shown by your subscription
numbers?
A.  No, of course not.  We will be exploring this in the coming year.

Q.  Nature specialty journals are being marketed in US?
A.  Yes - we market all the Nature journals, a total of 20 titles.

Q.  Tell us about usage statistics.
A.  We are only able to offer statistics for Aug/Sept, as we changed hosts
in the summer.  You need to tell us that you need usage statistics; we
hope to have them available by November 1st.

Q.  What do you count?
A.  We count number of articles downloaded, hits.

Q.  Are you still using WebTrends to collect stats?
A.  Don't know.

Q.  Tell us about technical support.
A.  We have two tech support departments; we have also outsourced some of
that (this is for Grove and the Encyclopedias).  We have 24-hour technical
support through ROM-Net.  Our own technical support is available from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m.

Q.  Why do we have so much difficulty in getting trial access to Nature?
For Nature licensing, who is our contact person?
A.  Trials for Nature, because they are handled through a different
technical provider, are more complicated.  You have to set up the trial
yourself.  Donna Namorato's department handles this.

Q.  Why is Astronomy selling so well in print?
A.  Through a combination of factors:  it's a niche product; the price has
an influence - print and e are comparable.  When we start delivering
electronic updates, this may change.

Q.  Are you expecting to produce another print edition of Music?
A.  Not at this time.

Q.  We have great difficulty with invoicing.  We are bombarded with
invoices.
A.  Yes, we have had problems with invoicing through the networks.  We are
trying to resolve these.  We hope the situation is improving.

Q.  If no more print versions of reference materials are planned, will
there be archival access?
A.  If you have a subscription for 3 years, we will provide CD Rom or tape
or some kind of access to the content that you had up to point of
cancellation.

Q.  My consortium has many libraries that cannot afford your products.
The minimum price is very high (for public & small academic libraries).
This makes print more attractive.  Please offer a minimum price that is
much lower.
A.  Can you give me examples of other pricing models, under $50.  (None
were provided at that point.)

Q.  The Encyclopedia of Life Science was supposedly completed in May 2001
and yet we found that the promised content was not all there.  When do you
plan to finish it and would you please let customers know that it is not
quite finished yet?  What will you do to make up for this?
A.  As far as I know at this point, the basic product and all its
functionality is there.  Will be interested in talking to you later about
this.  Glad to try to resolve this matter.

Q.  Comment:  Re. the proposal to charge very cheap prices, Arnold noted
that there is a minimal cost to doing business.  There was debate from the
floor about this matter, i.e., over what is a fair reasonable price is for
a small library.

Q.  The Nature group of monthlies and reviews: are they available for
consortial discount?
A.  Yes, they are available to consortia with discount 10-20%.

Q.  Could you briefly outline how the pricing model works?
A.  It's based on FTE for academic institutions and for public libraries
it's based on percentage of population served.  The school base price is
$1200 for unlimited access.  Corporate and government libraries are
charged on the basis of their R&D staff.  There is a cap.  There is a
minimum price.

Q.  What about perpetual access and archiving?
A.  We are looking at an archive site in partnership with academic
institution.

Q.  What about offering a five-year price with archival rights?  That way
Nature would get the money up front?  Could a five-year price make lower
pricing possible?
A.  We do offer 2-3 year subscriptions.

Q from Mr. Hurtt:   Would members rather subscribe direct with publishers
to reference books or would they rather go through their local consortium
or network?  We would like to move in the direction of consortia.  We are
trying to send a single message and to communicate more fully internally.
A.  This depends on the price and how it relates to the hassle of dealing
through an intermediary.  If you give us a choice, it is confusing.  You
need to clarify the message.

Q.  Do you incent your sales staff?
A.  Yes - they get commissions.

Q.  The timing of offers really makes a difference; the point in the
fiscal year and budget process need to be right.
A.  We give the option to a library that buys direct, that they can move
in the future to the consortial offering.

--end--

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