I subscribed to ScienceDirect's College Edition for Elon University beginning Jan 1, 2006.  I think it's an excellent product for smaller colleges and universities whose Elsevier subscriptions are less than $50,000.  We subscribed to all three subject collections for ~$27,500 for the first year and have access to over 1,800 titles; price will increase somewhat each year.  Though I had the option of a multiyear contract, we started with a single year contract to make sure this access met all our needs.  Our main concern was the 4-yr backfile, but we've so far not been swamped with ILL requests for older articles.

I spent extensive time reviewing the title lists for the three subject collections before subscribing, and am really pleased with the access we have.  We're not required to maintain print; I'm cancelling our print for most titles for 2007, and this cancellation will completely fund our Elsevier access for next year.  My Elsevier customer rep who worked with me on licensing has checked in several time to make sure all is well and to solicit feedback on the product. (yes -they're being so nice!!!!)  Someone from the home office in Europe also scheduled a phone call with me to discuss any suggestions I might have for improving the product - I'm overwhelmed.  We discussed the addition of more backfiles and pricing for these, and I think that will be an option soon.  I'm also in the early stages of discussing with them reduced consortial pricing for Carolina Consortium members, so we may get prices down even further.

I've talked with other NC schools who have chosen a single subject collection as that fit their needs better; they too have been really pleased with all the title access for a very reasonable price.

I'm planning to renew and do a multi-year contract this time around, as the annual price increase will be smaller.  Feel free to email or call me if you have any further questions about how College Edition is working out for us.  I'll copy below a very brief description of the deal in case anyone's wanting more info.   Thanks, Dianne

Journal Collections

The full-text content of over 1,800 Elsevier peer-reviewed journals is now available to you across 3 broad subject area Journal Collections:

*	Social & Behavioral Sciences (>350 full-text journals)

§         Health & Life Sciences (>950 full-text journals)

§         Physical Sciences & Engineering (>650 full-text journals)

Each Journal Collection is priced at only $9,500 or $28,500 for all 3 Journal Collections. This would entitle Elon University to a 4-year building backfile, providing access to all the Elsevier journals within the subscribed Collection(s).

On average, this works out as low as $15 per journal per year.

Dianne Ford
Serials and Documents Librarian
Belk Library, Elon University
2550 Campus Box
Elon, NC 27244
336-278-6584
dford@elon.edu