On November 10, 2011 NFAIS held an event titled The Eroding of the Subscription Model and Emerging Alternatives:

In the current economic climate libraries have limited purchasing power. Academic budgets are declining while the need for access to digital information is increasing on today’s wired campuses.

As a result, innovative librarians are seeking alternative methods to access and acquire the content required by their faculty, students, and researchers. Is resource sharing the answer? Will purchase on demand work for books and journals? Is the subscription model no longer viable – even for scholarly materials? This workshop will take a look at what new business models are emerging, their success, and what the future holds for the subscription model in the distribution of scholarly and scientific information.

The event covered the following topics:

• An Overview of the Current Landscape – Dan Tonkery
• An Overview of Library Budgets: The ACRL Environmental Scan – Lisa Hinchliffe
• Erosion of the Subscription Model: the Librarian’s Perspective – Betsy Appleton and Ann Okerson
• Erosion of the Subscription Model: the Publisher’s Perspective – Linda Beebe, M. Scott Dineen, and Amy Pedersen
• Emerging Alternatives to Subscriptions – Jason E. Phillips and Rebecca Seger

If you missed this event  you can read the summary of each session online and NFAIS has made the slides available as well at NFAIS — The Eroding Subscription Model.