210 likes | 401 Views
From the Licencing Battlefield. Consortia as middlemen between publishers, agents and libraries. A view from the Continent. Consortia everywhere. ICOLC Europe National and Regional Consortia Institutional Consortia
E N D
From the Licencing Battlefield Consortia as middlemen between publishers, agents and libraries. A view from the Continent
Consortia everywhere • ICOLC Europe • National and Regional Consortia • Institutional Consortia • Growing interconsortial cooperation (KE, http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/ and SELL, http://heal-l.physics.auth.gr/SELL/ ) • Variety of external and internal organisation • Variety in governance and decision making • Variety in size and coherence
The Role of Government • If Large: larger scale, broader coverage, more decision making power • If Small: smaller scale, more focus, more internal dynamics • Examples: JISC, FinElib, Bibsam, DEFF versus UKB (Dutch universities), SHB (Dutch Polytechnics), VOWB (Belgium),
Different needs • Universities: Much/Everything, broad, international, high level • Polytechnics: Mothertongue material, applied science, selective, focussed • Research Institutes: High level, international, but selective, focussed, often not in consortia
Sources of Conflicts • Cost division • Differences in size and nature • Lack of Transparency and Flexibility • Adherence to historic spends • Inability to break away from printed based concepts
Disappearing titles • When a journal changes publishers • When a publisher discontinues titles • When a society chooses to change its policy • Sticking to habits and solutions of the past • An opportunity for Agents once again?
The Subscription Agent in Big Deal times • The difficulty of simplifying complexity • Purchase and licence without intermediary • Purchase and licence on consortial level • What’s new? Negotiations! • The issue at stake: the price of content
Big deals and their Drawbacks • Much better value for money, but: • Big deals are inflexible • Big deals are in the long run expensive • Big Deals squeeze out small publishers • Big Deal pricing is intransparent and incomparable • Big Deal Pricing is mainly based on irrelevant figures from the past
The JISC Survey • Survey 2005 by Rightscom Ltd among librarians and publishers (http://www.nesli2.ac.uk) • Priorities of librarians: widest access; financial predictability; reduced costs • Priorities of publishers: continuity; predictability; simplicity NB. Simplicity is not a librarians priority?
The Publisher’s Perspective • PPV is endlessly flexible • PPV is ultimately transparant • PPV is a perfect alternative for outdated models • PPV is a perfect instrument for cost division • Above all: usage is always going up!!
PPV models • Usage Based Pricing/PPV • PPV models tend to be complicated • JISC: PPV converting into subscription; Core collection + PPV for peripheral content • PPV is hidden Price Increase Driver • Does PPV really increase flexibility and/or reduce costs??
Presuppositions for UBP • Usage has a calculable value • User must decide to use or not to use • User has to pay for usage • Usage can be controlled: attributed to (groups of) customers, eventually restricted
What we don’t know about usage • Who is using what? And Why? • Does usage somehow reflect relevance? • Does usage somehow reflect value? • Why is usage increasing year after year? • How do users deal with information? To what effect? • Is information becoming a volatile, omnipresent commodity?
Why UBP is not compatible with the nature of the library • We don’t want to restrict access but to encourage usage • We don’t want to measure and monitor usage • The usage of library materials is not sufficiently uniform and relevant to connect with pricing • UBP does not improve transparency nor, probably, reduce costs
A model for the ranking of relevance Pricing should reflect: • the nature of the product • the relevance of the product for a specific customer • The relative buying power of that customer • The total spends of a customer
Question 1: Who are you? Are you a (very) big/medium/(very) small: • Research University • Research Institute • Teaching University/Polytechnic • Other kind of Institute
Question 2: What do you want? Do you want: • Access to a single title: list price • Access to a (subject) bundle: addition of reduced list prices • Access to a full portfolio: addition of further reduced list prices NB. But what will be the list price? And why?
Question 3: Where do you live? • Buying power: mainly a matter of location • Starting Point: GDP (or similar) per country • Taking into account: division of wealth within the country
An Example • Suppose: Title x = $ 1000 average in the US Nature/Size big medium small Research U/I 2000 1000 500 Teaching U 500 250 125 Polytechnic 200 100 50 • Price to be corrected for location
Questions to be answered • Are such models realistic from an administrative perspective? • Are publishers prepared to develop this kind of models? • Can librarians may be of help? • Can Agents play a role here?
Why don’t publishers develop pay per view for individual customers for a price that is equivalent with the Document Delivery rates that libraries are charging?Thank you