Determining the True Cost of E-Resources: A Case Study

This case study quantifies the labor costs associated with maintaining various electronic resource subscriptions for one year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Library personnel reported their time spent on troubleshooting, assessing, licensing, evaluating accessibility, and renewing e-resources. The data was used to produce visual analyses of labor costs per vendor, contract type, resource type, and total costs over time. Outlier costs are analyzed and discussed. The authors propose that a “cost of maintenance” metric be used when assessing e-resources.