EPIC

 Watch out for Paula Banks at Conference
Electronic Purchasing in Collaboration (EPIC) is a consortium of libraries that license packages of electronic resources to be used in New Zealand libraries.

What does Electronic Purchasing in Collaboration (EPIC) do?

EPIC’s vision is to provide access to high-quality electronic information for all New Zealanders.
EPIC is a New Zealand initiative that provides access to electronic resources (e-resources) through a consortium of member libraries.
The initiative enables member libraries to increase their purchasing power through collaborative purchasing. EPIC provides libraries with the advocacy and support to work with global information providers.
EPIC’s core strategies are to:

• procure sets of quality e-resources for all-of-country access and/or self selecting groups of libraries
• use New Zealand libraries across all sectors as the delivery agents
• guide development though a governance group that represents member libraries
• ensure a fair and affordable subscription cost model
• fund operations through a subscriptions component and host support from the Department of Internal Affairs acting through the National Library of New Zealand as the lead agency
• facilitate collaboration, within the consortia and with other agencies, to achieve affordable solutions to e-resource management
• adopt a partnering approach with e-resource providers.

EPIC acts to:

• enable collaborative and flexible procurement options for libraries
• provide a single point of billing, reducing costs for vendors and libraries
• support libraries to effectively access and use e-resources
• assist libraries to interpret and promote e-resources.