Consortium Asks Journal Vendors for Price Reductions
Statement from NorthEast Research Libraries is the latest to ask vendors to take academic library budgets into account.
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 05/07/2009
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- 27 research libraries
- Endowments have suffered
- Statement comes in wake of ICOLC request
The NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL) consortium, which includes 27 academic research libraries, is the latest to issue a statement expressing to vendors the hardships libraries are currently facing.
In January, the the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) released its "Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortial Licenses," which was shortly followed by an endorsement [PDF] from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
Last month, Ann Okerson, NERL coordinator and associate university librarian of Yale, wrote an open letter [PDF] on behalf of NERL to publishers and vendors aiming to persuade them to strike new deals with the consortium that might ease the budget pressures its members face.
Striking a new balance
In the letter, Okerson cites budget reductions in effect across the consortium, writing that "our operating budgets depend on revenues from endowments that have plummeted, and so we are compelled to impose budget discipline beyond ordinary prudence."
Budget cuts at member institutions have averaged 4-5%, according to the letter; those cuts are estimated to have an impact on the "overall buying power against normal increases on the order of (minus) 8-10%." (Several ARL libraries face major cuts, as LJAN reported last week.)
Okerson asks the publishers and vendors to "find ways to achieve net price reductions in both next year and the year after," implying that libraries will forego a number of the vendors' products and services if a new understanding cannot be reached.
The letter carries in it a note of urgency, given that the resource renewal season for academic libraries is approaching quickly. Okerson proposes a conference call so consortial members and vendors can hold "high level" discussions.
A subsequent note from Okerson to the Liblicense email list on May 1 said, "[w]e have had some replies and hope for a productive engagement with our publishers during these times of economic downturn."
Vendors heed the call
In the wake of the ICOLC letter in January, LexisNexis agreed to waive its 2.5% annual increase, as well as to offer further “deeper” (though unspecified) discounts for members of the SOLINET consortium (now subsumed under Lyrasis).
At the time, J. Michael Williams, then manager of member outreach and communications at SOLINET, told the LJAN that the waived annual increase aggregated for the entire country represented a savings of some $350,000-$400,000.
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