The ultimate Canadian geoscience reference database Report to CFES Council, October 2012 Carolyn Relf, Elisabeth Kosters

What is CanGeoRef? Bibliographic database, subscription based – An integral subset of GeoRef, containing references to all Canadian Geoscience literature, currently with ca. 210,000 references – Web-based, updated weekly – Target market: organizations that are unlikely candidates for the full GeoRef file (price)

Background : AGI invites CFES to partner in CanGeoRef Motivation AGI: – successful partnership with Geoscience Australia in AusGeoRef since 2002: non-traditional GeoRef market – AusGeoRef: especially ‘grey’ (mineral) literature more accessible to greater audience

Background 2. AGI’s research into Canadian part of GeoRef file: ca. half of all Canadian references were missing from GeoRef Most of these were references from provincial and territorial geological surveys (‘grey literature’), generally since 1994

Background 3. Missing References challenge Reason for missing P/T references: – in 1994 GeoScan (NRCan) stops incorporating references from provinces and territories (GeoScan incorporated in GeoRef) Repair attempt: Canadian Geoscience Knowledge Network – funding problems

START OF CANGEOREF Sept 2009 – CPTG Provincial and Territorial geological surveys (CPTG) support CFES to produce CanGeoRef by: – One time financial support for start-up expenses $15,000, in 2 halves of $7,500 each, second half only when necessary and when project remains on track – Making staff available to work with CFES’s data-entry contractor CFES will: – have a ‘director for CanGeoRef’ on the board – Have a steering committee for CanGeoRef, chaired by a CPTG rep. To date: these 2 positions have been combined in 1 person, Carolyn Relf, director of the Yukon Geol. Survey

START OF CANGEOREF: Oct 2009 Sign contract with AGI (Regina Council meeting): – Business model agreed – Pricing agreed – AGI will train contractor(s) – Agree to launch 1.5 years after signing of contract Data-entry contractor recruited in January 2010, hence launch agreed for early Fall 2011

CanGeoRef Business model CFES Board of Directors with 1 Director for CanGeoRef CFES/FCST executive manager: day-to-day management Contractor for data entry: Purple Rock Inc., Victoria BC CanGeoRef Steering Committee: 3 information specialists (librarians), one each from industry, government, academia Committee meetings at least 2 x per year. AGI Director of Information Services always attends data submission reporting Data QA, incorporation in (Can)GeoRef invoicing advice invoicing communication

Financial agreement CFES pays Purple Rock: – Can $3.25 for references without abstract – Can $3.75 for references with abstract – (these amounts have not increased since project start) AGI pays CFES: – US $3.75 for references without abstract – US $4.75 for references with abstract – (these amounts have been annually increased on the basis of the CPI) Price difference helps to offset CFES expenses (time of executive manager, marketing efforts)

LAUNCH OF CANGEOREF: 13 Sept 2011 CanGeoRef contains references to: – Books, (chapters in) books * – Refereed journal articles pertaining to Canadian Geoscience * – Conference abstracts: only when published in refereed journals * – Theses titles and abstracts: only when delivered by Canadian universities, still to tackle completeness * – All NRCan references (reports, maps, etc.) * – All Provincial and Territorial references, complete for AB, MB, ON (CFES contribution) * automatic weekly updating by AGI

CanGeoRef is the latest of several subsets of GeoRef

AB MB ON complete and up to date October 2012: AB, MB, ON, BC (order of priority set by jurisdictions) NL before end 2012 Remainder 2013 Project on track BC NL

CanGeoRef Price: A commercial subscription to GeoRef costs > $10,000

Why pay when Google is free? CanGeoRef is is objective: different users obtain the same results. Free online search engines, including Google scholar, are subjective: they show the user what they calculate that that user finds important, based on earlier searches by that same user. Thus, these search engines personalize the search process: different users get different results Free online search engines are not subject to QA and are therefore incomplete.

Marketing year 1: Fall ‘11-Spring ’12 (marketing plan August ’11, approved by CFES Board) Fall ’11: CFES executive manager marketing tour at open houses of P/T Geological Surveys: NS, NB, ON Fall ’11: MB independent marketing effort Jan ’12: BC (Roundup) by Purple Rock director Spring ‘12: CFES exec manager “does” Calgary

Additional marketing (no cost) CIM Magazine: article (November) PDAC Magazine: article (November) Ontario Geological Survey: CanGeoRef prominently on home page - PDAC: AGI booth + individual marketing by Carolyn Relf, Bill Stiebel and Bill Mercer CSPG and CSEG Lunches – Doug Uffen

CanGeoRef subscriptions 5 institutional subscribers – companies, library consortia of community colleges 4 individual subscribers Total royalties to date: ca. $550.- – Royalty agreement: 25% of gross subscription revenue for every new CanGeoRef license for the first 3 years and 50% thereafter

Two common misconceptions 1.CanGeoRef contains only references produced by Canadian authors: – Correct / Wrong 2.CanGeoRef contains no references from jurisdictions that haven’t been updated yet by Purple Rock – Correct / Wrong

CanGeoRef uptake after 1 year disappointing Sept 2012: Steering comm + AGI evaluate year 1 Recommendation – Explore whether commercial hosts (e.g. EBSCO) are willing to host CanGeoRef. – Commercial hosts take a cut, but will actively market product Recommendation from ON: carry out survey among customers visiting P/T open houses

INCOME FROM CPTG : $ 7,500 INVOICED TO AGI : $ 82,941 ROYALTIES$ ====== + TOTAL INCOME$ 90,991 EXPENSES TRAINING Purple Rock: $ 2,905 Purple Rock MARKETING at ROUNDUP $ 1,906 Purple Rock at CFES Council $ 75 DATA ENTRY Purple Rock: $ 73,405 CFES OFFICE (185hrs + expenses) $ 14,950 + ====== + TOTAL EXPENSES $ 93,241 Financial overview 2010, 2011, 2012 Balance: - $ 2,250

Negative balance to date explained by 1.ON data entry: 14,000 references without abstract 2.Disappointing sales to date Negative balance offset by 1.Generous donations from NS, NB and ON Geological Surveys 2.CFES executive manager donation: ca. 10 working days CanGeoRef is a very long term project. With continued proper management, the balance will eventually turn.

Acknowledgements AGI (especially Sharon Tahirkheli) Purple Rock Inc. (Nicole Barlow and staff) CanGeoRef steering committee members: Jeanne Kimber (Encana), Lori Janower (MB DNR), Laura Briggs (Waterloo Univ)