About - Technology Fee Funded Projects

Springer is recognized as a leading academic publisher, producing scholarly journals that are relevant and appropriate to university student course work and faculty research. The content will directly support student learning by providing material for course papers, projects, and study. Sample titles from the Archive hint at the breadth and depth of the content that will become available to UCF.

Many of the articles are suitable for course readings. The articles can be embedded in online courses and there is no limit on the number of people who can open Springer articles at once.

The UCF Libraries is committed to work directly with faculty and the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning to publicize this collection and its potential use to meet the needs of UCF programs and for course readings. The Libraries will offer informational materials to distribute during various events, such as the faculty development conferences, and will feature information about the collection in newsletters and exhibits. And librarians will instruct students about accessing Springer online journals during Information Literacy sessions.

The Libraries will measure the success of the Springer Online Archive Collection through usage data and surveys. Springer will deliver semi-annual usage reports that track which titles were used, and how many times articles were downloaded. In addition, Springer will create charts to reveal trends in usage patterns by discipline.

The popularity of the Springer eBooks Collection and the current Springer Journals indicate that usage of the Archive Collection will be high. During 2009, UCF users attempted to access Archive articles 6500 times, and statistics for the first half of 2010 indicate that the rate of attempted accesses is increasing. Usage will be even higher for this collection once it is purchased and entered into the UCF Libraries’ and Online Journals system. Usage is expected grow yearly for the first three years the Collection is available, with the following success metrics:

LibQUAL+® and other surveys will be used to assess student satisfaction. For both faculty and students, satisfaction with the Collection content and interface should start high and remain high, and 70% or more of e-book Collection users should report that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the content and system.

The requested funds will cover the entire cost of the Springer Online Archive Collection. The UCF Libraries will maintain subscriptions to current Springer journals online, paying approximately $176,000 annually. There are no fees for maintaining access to the Archive Collection and UCF will own the content. Once the collection is purchased, UCF Libraries will ensure that access is provided in the catalog and through the online journals system.