Purchasing e-books is expensive, according to David Ball, University Librarian, Bournemouth University, and subscription services for e-books isn’t much of a less expensive option. E-textbooks are for students; publishers don’t want to sell them to libraries. One 47-member consortia contract went to Ebrary and ProQuest Safari; the other to Ebrary. Libraries need flexible and innovative pricing models, value for money, reject straight-jacket of hardcopy model, and exploit electronic medium. Libraries influence content to be provided and e-textbooks move closer to electronic provision.

What about purchasing electronic information in the corporate world? It’s Armand Brevig, Global Category Leader, AstraZeneca, who has that perspective, talking about a model for managing e-journal spending. Journal prices are rising quickly. Between 1986 and 2002, they went up 220%, 3 times as much as the consumer price index went up. Reaction, number of serials purchased stayed flat, but expenditures went up that same 220%. Libraries frequently felt powerless and were forced to accept price rises, negotiate a smaller increase, or cancel print journals.

We must change our approach. It’s time to fight back, regain control. We need to bargain for more value (get price caps, negotiate lower increase, complimentary copies), challenge vendors’ perspective (lobby through an industry organization or advisory board, highlight entire relationship, communicate budget constraints, convince publisher you’re really at the end of your rope and the budget will no longer expand to meet their pricing demands, talk about open access), increase bargaining power (enterprise wide framework agreements, consolidate through agents, multiyear deals, pre-payment, buy back files instead of using document delivery, make the deal look bigger so you have more to bargain with), and manage demand (vendor portfolio management, charge back for premium service, educate about free/low cost alternative, cancel low usage journals, look at pay per view). It’s the art of the possible.

Think about your organization as a whole, rather than a bunch of silos. There’s a need for an enabling government structure, which will ensure compliance. The doing more with less mandate still applies. Some key publishers are extremely profitable and they’ve done that using our money. It’s time to shift the playing field.

It helps to band together, join a consortia, to effectively bargain with publishers. It’s much harder to gain leverage if you’re a small library. What about consortium cancellation? Does this every happen? Some in the U.S. are threatening to cancel the Big Deal.

Ah, here’s a loaded question. Mark just asked how the price increases in journals compare with the rise in drug prices. Armand dodged it, saying he’s not on the sales side in AstraZeneca, so he doesn’t know.

And now it’s time for lunch.