[Libs-Or] FW: [alacoun] Request for comment or further info on the EBSCO exclusivity deal
Rawles-Heiser, Carolyn
Carolyn.Rawles-Heiser at ci.corvallis.or.us
Thu Jan 21 17:01:12 PST 2010
I saw this on the ALA Council list and thought it was worth forwarding
on. Our library received one of the "open letters" from Gale. It is
pretty disturbing to see the titles.
Carolyn
Carolyn Rawles-Heiser
Library Director
Corvallis--Benton County Public Library
645 NW Monroe Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97330
(541)766-6910
________________________________
From: adobbs at gmail.com [mailto:adobbs at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Aaron W.
Dobbs
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:49 PM
To: ALA Council List
Subject: [alacoun] Request for comment or further info on the EBSCO
exclusivity deal
Hi all,
I've heard reports about the situation described in the email below from
ALA Midwinter attendees who went to the EBSCO luncheon and I just
received the email below, speaking from Gale's perspective on this
exclusive contract to provide full runs of "major magazines" via EBSCO.
Should ALA have a response to this?
What should that response be?
>From a freedom of access point of view, there seems to be something
suboptimal in exclusive content deals like this one. From a business
perspective, they make sense.
I've heard form several members and a former councilor on this issue, so
far; asking if Council is considering this.
Thank you for your thoughts
-Aaron
:-)'
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Corby, Kate <corby at mail.lib.msu.edu>
Subject: Request for comment or further info EBSCO exclusivity deal.
I am no longer on Council so I'm turning to you two for input and maybe
access to Councilor eyes. I have not read all of the details of recent
Council action but I didn't see this highlighted and wonder if it
happened too recently to have attracted Council attention.
I attended the EBSCO Academic Librarians lunch at ALA. What I heard at
the luncheon was that a number of popular magazine publishers got
together and decided to issue a single RFP which made exclusive access
an integral part of the resulting contract. EBSCO was proudly
announcing that they had won the bid for this effort and while prices
might go up, they were now the sole electronic source for a wide host of
popular magazines, including Time, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes,
Fortune, Discover, Scientific American (which they granted could also be
purchased from the publisher) and many many more. Given what I know of
EBSCO's business practices (their efforts toward exclusive contracts are
well known) I found their story somewhat hard to believe since a
scenario such as EBSCO painted would clearly be an illegal collusion in
restraint of trade.
Now I been made aware of an "Open Letter" from Gale, which would seem
to confirm the exclusivity of the deal. I'm thinking this is something
Councilors would want to be aware of. EBSCO is I believe a major ALA
contributor, as is Gale.
From: Gale [mailto:gale.e-mail at cengage.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:22 PM
To: Dobbs, Aaron
Subject: An open letter to the library community
An open letter to the library community
Gale, part of Cengage Learning
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An open letter to the library community
To our valued library partners,
Last summer, Gale publicly expressed our concerns over exclusive
licensing agreements (the practice of "locking up" a periodical
publisher's content with a single information provider) and asked you to
join us in a conversation about the impact on libraries and on those
whom libraries serve. Many librarians expressed agreement, via blog,
Twitter and phone calls.
Nevertheless, another information provider, EBSCO, persists in a
practice that drives up costs while limiting access to information, and
chooses to mislead libraries as to their purpose. We'd like to set the
record straight:
* EBSCO has a long history of proactively approaching publishers
and offering to pay a premium for exclusive rights to distribute their
publications in libraries, having done this for more than a decade with
academic journals.
* Now EBSCO is pursuing the same strategy with mainstream news and
business publications, having recently paid a premium to secure full
control over the distribution of two major periodicals publishers: Time
Inc. and Forbes.
* Contrary to statements from EBSCO, Gale did bid for this
content, offering proposals consistent with our policy against
exclusivity. In both proposals, Gale included language that would allow
all information providers to retain these titles in their products. Gale
also submitted bids well in excess of the publishers' asking price just
to keep the content available for all libraries. As stated in our bid
<http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=4rs,1b3wo,2vvp,5h66,407r,k8rl,4lr
3> , our intent was to license to all vendors with equal terms, without
creating an advantage to Gale. EBSCO bid higher, as they were intent on
securing this content exclusively for their own products.
Time Inc. bid
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Click on the image above to see excerpts from our Time Inc. bid from
last August.
* EBSCO made its bid contingent on having the right to exclusively
distribute the content in the library market and, as they have stated,
they will now be the only provider of these titles, raising the entire
cost structure for periodical resources. It should be clearly noted that
the publishers did not require this and were happy to allow Gale to
sublicense their content to any other information provider, but EBSCO
sought exclusivity and was willing to bid a higher price to get it.
What does this mean to you?
If you currently receive Time Inc. or Forbes periodical content
electronically from Gale or any provider other than EBSCO, you and your
patrons will lose access to that content over the next year. While there
will remain alternative, high-quality titles in all information
providers' products, there will be an impact on users, especially those
who access content through long-term statewide subscriptions.
During this time of economic distress, Gale strongly believes that
vendors should support libraries with advocacy efforts and sponsorships,
and provide tools to increase usage rather than engage in practices that
raise the entire cost structure of electronic resources. In the end,
information providers who artificially drive up content licensing fees
will have to pass those costs on to their customers. Gale believes this
is fundamentally wrong.
We believe the practice of restricting access to information is in
direct opposition to the core values of libraries. And given the
current, unprecedented pressure on library budgets, we believe these
actions are particularly ill-timed.
What you can do
Here are three things you can do to oppose exclusive licensing
agreements:
1. Raise your voice. Join the Facebook group "Librarians for Fair
Access to Content
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information providers and share your library's mission; tell them why
these licensing practices are bad for libraries.
2. Pass this message along to other librarians and those who make
decisions regarding your funding levels. Get others involved. There's
strength in numbers.
3. Don't reward the behavior. Work with information providers who
support your mission and understand your needs.
As the cost of licensing content increases artificially, prices will go
up. If you worry about information costs going up, we ask you to take a
stand.
If you feel strongly about providing your users with ongoing access to
information, we encourage you to take action.
Thank you for your interest and participation.
Yours in partnership,
John Barnes
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John Barnes
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Business Development
Gale, part of Cengage Learning
Gale, part of Cengage Learning
27500 Drake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
1-800-877-GALE
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