In this edition of the ERA eNewsletter we hear from Tony Leschen on the value of the Australian dollar, welcome back Erica Ryan, and provide an update on the ERA Members Forum and the current procurement process to select products for the 2009 Product Panel.

Declining value of the Australian dollar

I am sure that we are all concerned about the impact of declining value of the Australian dollar. If the dollar remains below US$0.70 (or worse), next year, we can expect to pay an extra 25-30% for our 2009 print and electronic subscription renewals, possibly more.

One of the great advantages of consortium membership is that vendors have an incentive to provide the best possible renewal prices in order to retain our business and may be prepared to lock-in a particular exchange rate if a rapid decline appears imminent.

The bottom line is that in tough times it makes even more sense than usual to be part of a very large consortium like ERA.

Tony Leschen - ERA Executive Committee

Executive Officer

After a year away, Erica Ryan returned as the ERA Executive Officer on 27 October. Together with Nikki Darby, Erica will continue to work with the ERA Executive Committee and manage the operators of the consortium.

A special vote of thanks goes to Nikki and Virginia James from all on the ERA Executive, for everything they have done to keep ERA on track and, and for taking us very successfully through to the second subscription year.

We are looking forward to working with Australian libraries into the future.

If you would like to contact Erica or Nikki, please click here

2009 ERA Members Forum

Planning has started for the March 2009 ERA Member Forum at the National Library in Canberra and we would be interested to hear from you with any suggested speakers, proposals for presentations or papers by participating libraries or other ideas for the event.

Based on participant feedback from the 2008 Forum, we hope to provide more opportunity for group discussions and incorporate a panel discussion with vendors again. Wednesday, 25 March 2009 is the proposed date: the same week as the ALIA Public Libraries Summit (26 March) and 'Innovative Ideas Forum' (27 March).

Suggestions can be emailed to era@nla.gov.au or visit our blog to post a comment http://eraustralia.blogspot.com/.

Request for Tender (RFT)

A procurement process is underway to select e-resources for the 2009 ERA Product Panel for subscriptions commencing 1 July 2009.

Tender responses from those vendors who were short-listed in the August Request for Expression of Interest (NLA REOI 08/054) are being evaluated, with an announcement due in the early new year.

The products that result from the tender process will be offered in the 2009 ERA Product Poll for consideration by all Australian libraries.

Stay tuned ...

Key dates to remember

2009

• 1 January - ERA subscription cycle to 31 December 2009 commences
• 20-22 January - ALIA Information Online 2009 14th conference and exhibition at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre: a great time to catch up with the ERA vendors and hear what other libraries are doing (there look to be some interesting papers on e-resources in the program)
• 25 March - ERA Members Forum