arXiv.org help - arXiv Business Planning Update

"As announced in our October'11 update, the Simons Foundation has provided a $60,000 planning grant to support the development of a governance model that will guide arXiv's transition from an exclusive initiative of Cornell University Library (CUL) to a collaboratively governed, community supported resource. To discuss how to achieve this goal, we will hold two planning meetings in February 2012—one in the US and a second in Europe—with representatives from the library and science communities. During the planning meetings, we will seek advice on arXiv's organizational structure and operating principles. We will also discuss a collaborative business model that continues to engage the libraries and research labs. The planning grant will be carried out between September 2011 and April 2012....We continue working with CERN to migrate arXiv to use the Invenio platform for our discovery and access interface.... In the coming year, we expect to expand our programming staff by 0.5 FTE in order to assist with this effort and other current needs. We now anticipate the transition to Invenio, which will include a number of user interface enhancements, to be completed in the first half of 2013....In 2011, 133 institutions in 18 countries have pledged their support, totaling $424,000 in contributions....We have a budget estimate for 2012 up on the arXiv website. You will notice that the annual expenses have increased due to our need to add a new user support person and a half-time programmer. We have just completed performing an analysis of the 2011 download activity in order to determine the top 200 constituents. There are not any significant variations between the 2010 and 2011....Established in January 2010, the current institutional contribution model is a 3-year interim strategy for 2010-2012 with the goal of developing a long-term business plan that provides a strategic framework by Summer 2012. The voluntary institutional contribution model targets pledges from 200 libraries and research laboratories worldwide that represent the heaviest institutional users of arXiv. The short-term contribution model has been successful and with Cornell's contributions has resulted in sufficient funds to cover all direct expenses for 2010 and 2011 as well as creating a contingency fund. Based on the outcomes of the February planning meetings, we expect to announce a model for 2013-2017 by June 2012...."