NMRLS Digital Library Pricing Model Approved by Executive Board

At the April 26th Executive Board meeting, Mary Rose Quinn, Digital Library Committee Chair, presented the Board with a sustainable pricing model for members using the Northeast Massachusetts Digital Library (NMDL). The proposal, unanimously approved by the Executive Board, would encourage new members to participate on a small scale. Larger users would pay more of their own costs. The Digital Library Committee members felt that this was a good model allowing libraries to begin digital library projects with NMRLS' help. The FY09 start date gives members time to budget and it gives NMRLS time to seek other, less-expensive digital hosting alternatives. Current costs are about $4,000/year for the CONTENTdm digital repository license that is currently used by NMDL. This equals about $1 per year per image.

Proposal to begin July 1, 2008 (FY2009)

• Entry level users: $50 per year for up to 100 images and associated metadata
• Other users: Actual costs for images over 100 (currently $1 per image per year).

Example: a library with 250 images:

• $50 for the first 100 images
• $150 for the additional 150 images
• $200 Total per year

More information on NMRLS' digital library initiatives and the Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth can be found at: http://www.nmrls.org/nmdl/.

Access the 9 member library collections on the Northeast Massachusetts Digital Library (NMDL) at: http://nmrlsdli.cdmhost.com.