Academic publisher De Gruyter, Germany, has announced that it will provide German distance-learning university FernUniversität in Hagen with comprehensive trial access to its specialist literature with a view to identifying demand. The test will last for a year, beginning August 1, 2011, and examine the new patron-driven acquisition model.
With more than 76,000 students enrolled in its courses, the FernUniversität claims to be Germany's largest university. The aim of the new acquisition model is to identify precisely what academic literature teaching staff and students need. The aim is to ensure that the funds available for resources are used efficiently.
As soon as the test phase begins, students and teaching staff at the FernUniversität will have access to all of De Gruyter's electronic content which is relevant to the subjects offered by the university in Hagen. Based on usage of the journals, databases and e-books, Hagen University Library will then decide which resources to purchase permanently. The test phase will be supported by the Berlin School of Library and Information Science at Humboldt-Universität. Prof. Michael Seadle and his team want to analyse research and information behaviour during the pilot project.
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