2009 was an active and rewarding year for the DEFF collaboration. A new steering committee was established with a new chairwoman – Mai Buch, director at Competencehouse – and a number of new members. The gymnasiums, the VUCs and the SOSUs – about 165 institutions – became part of the DEFF collaboration as per 1. January. The License Group for Educational Libraries (LUB) and the License Group for Universities and Research Institutions (LUF) and the four programme groups have maintained their high level of activity and ambition and have instigated a number of exciting projects and activities.

The steering committee has initially been focusing particularly on the preparation of a new strategy for DEFF. One significant input for this task was provided by the report The Future of Research and the Research Library, which was prepared for DEFF by Hans Siggaard Jensen, professor at the Danish School of Education and co-owner of the consultancy firm The Lime Guild. The report offers several scenarios for future library service to researchers.

The steering committee’s work on a new strategy is expected to be completed during 2010. The steering committee has also been focusing on letting the programme groups realise their strategy and action plans with as little friction as possible.

The secretariat has participated in a number of resource demanding activities. Among others, DEFF has been handling the chairman and secretariat function for the Open Access Committee. In 2010 this committee is scheduled to plan and carry out the implementation of EU’s Council of Ministers’ conclusions on scientific information in the digital age. The Australian professor of economics, John Houghton, has with his report commissioned by DEFF: Costs and Benefits of Alternative Publishing Models: Denmark produced a meticulous scientific justification for an active policy for Open Access. Apart from this, the work with a national data well for e-books and e-journals has been prioritized highly. The secretariat has moreover been dealing with a number of tasks in connection with the bibliometric research indicator.

In international terms DEFF is a partner in Knowledge Exchange (KE). Other partners are German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Dutch SURFfoundation and British Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). KE’s new organisational structure with only one management representative from each of the partner countries in the KE steering committee has worked impeccably and made the collaboration more competent in terms of decision-making and flexibility.

Status for the project work in the programme groups will be described in the following sections of the report. Developments in projects of particular importance such as DanBib and its coupling to the global cataloguing and ordering system Worldcat, common Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS) and the access management project Where Are You From (WAYF) will likewise be expanded on below.

Another important event in 2009 was the inclusion in DEFF of the gymnasiums, the VUCs and the SOSUs. The license secretariat has provided a license package for the new members as well as incorporated some in the License Group for Educational Libraries (LUB). Secretarial assistance has also been given to a preparatory project about a common technical platform, including library system for the gymnasium sector.

Other significant activities included the license secretariat for the first time hosting DEFF online in 2009 – a one-day seminar for members of the DEFF consortia. Nine publishers presented their products, and with its over 70 participants the day was deemed a success – and to be repeated in 2010. 2009 was also the year where the invoicing of licenses to all participating institutions was reorganised so that it now takes place twice a year via the further developed license database. The license collaboration with LUB and LUF has likewise been fruitful and towards the end of the year resulted in the adoption of a joint service declaration.