National licensing in a time of economic uncertainty: JISC Collections response to the economic & financial crisis

Licensing in a time of economic uncertainty

JISC Collections 11 April 2023 | ALISS AGM 2009 | Slide 1

Licensing in a time of economic uncertainty JISC Collections response to the economic & financial crisis


National licensing in a time of economic uncertainty

JISC Collections response to the economic & financial crisis

Liam Earney

JISC Collections



Context

– Economic Crisis

– Impact on Libraries

JISC Collections Strategy

Publisher Reactions

Further work from JISC Collections

Introduction



Global Economic Crisis and the state of UK Public Finances



Global economic crisis



World GDP Growth 2008-2009



Average of independent forecasts for 2009 – UK GDP growth

Source HM Treasury



Average of Independent Forecasts – UK Public Sector Borrowing 09-10

Source HM Treasury



Global Economic Crisis and the state of UK Public Finances

Deep Recession

Poor public finances

– DIUS expected to deliver additional £400million of savings in 2010-11

– Freeze if not cuts in public spending

The impact in the public sector will be over a number of years – even if the wider economy recovers



The impact on academic libraries – a perfect storm?



The impact on academic libraries - Global

ICOLC Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortia Licences

“current crisis [is] of such significance that we cannot simply assume that libraries and publishers share a common perspective about the magnitude of the crisis and the best approaches to deal with it”

Following forecasts:

1. Significant and widespread cuts in budget levels for libraries and consortia

2. Cuts will be prolonged

3. Exchange rate fluctuations are complicating and/or amplifying the impact

Full statement at:: http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/icolc-econcrisis-0109.htm



The impact on academic libraries – UK

Research Information Network: “Scholarly books and journals at risk: Responding to the challenges of a changing economy”

Fall in the value of Sterling “has already dented library purchasing budgets by 16%. As a result, many large university libraries anticipate deficits of around £400,000 this year and some contracts have yet to be paid.”

Uncertainty over currency fluctuations means “libraries’ budgetary positions may therefore change unpredictably during the year. […] faced with hard decisions about what to cut, they will be forced to cancel what they can as renewals fall due, rather than what their users might best manage without.”

“As the proportion of library acquisitions budgets that is spent on journals has risen (from 46% to 53% over the past decade), book purchasing has been ever more squeezed (dropping from £32 to £30 per FTE student over the past decade). Any further reduction in book purchasing would have a disproportionately damaging effect on the humanities, and many areas of the social sciences”

Full briefing at: http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/Scholarly_books_journals_at_risk.pdf:



The impact on academic libraries – UK

An orderly retreat from the big deal?

– Jill Taylor-Roe’s survey indicated that in 2010 institutions intend to take the following measures to cope with the economic crisis

• Request more funds from the University – 27%

• Cut the book fund – 18% (down from 23% this year)

• Cut the serials fund – 20% (up from 12% this year)

• Cancel big deals – 17% (up from 4% this year)http://www.uksg.org/sites/uksg.org/files/jill_taylor-roe.pps



What is JISC Collections doing?



JISC Collections Priorities and Negotiation Strategy

JISC Collections -

– Supports UK education and research by procuring and negotiating the best pricing and terms of use for online academic resources

– Mutual trading company established by the funding councils and funded by JISC

– Over 120 agreements for e-journals, e-books, databases, multimedia, archives and geospatial data

In 2008, JISC Collections saved the UK academic community c£43million



JISC Collections Priorities and Negotiation Strategy

Simple really…

– Listening to our members!!!

– Discussions with publishers outside of formal negotiations

Priority

– To allow academic libraries to maintain access to core digital content

Negotiation strategy

– No price rises at renewal

– Annual opt out from all agreements



Publisher reactions

Small A&IHumanities

Medium

All Subject Areas

Full Text Reference

Large

STM focus

e-Journals

Responsive and Sympathetic

Non-Responsive or Sympathetic



Publisher reactions

What attitudes underpin this mixed publisher reaction?

– “Our resources are core”

– “Big Deal” provides excellent value and unpicking it won’t work

• Fraction of the content for almost the same price

– Phoney war – lots of talk but no evidence of cuts yet

– Cutting resources in anathema to academic libraries

– Money in system – librarians just buying the wrong stuff

• Move print book expenditure to e-books

• Cut abstracting and indexing databases

– Follow the actions of competitors

• Don’t want to report 0% prices rises to Boards

• Don’t want to be the only content provider with an opt-out clause



What additional steps will JISC Collections take?

Revisit existing agreements to negotiate annual opt outs

Greater Value from New Business and Licensing Models -

– Develop alternatives to the 'opt-in model'

– Structure agreements to include access for the whole community

– Cross-sectoral licensing - higher education and further education, schools, the NHS and cultural institutions.

– Explore how NESLi2 can be extended to support the transition to Open Access

– Sustainable models for e-books - national e-books observatory and the e-textbook business trials



What additional steps will JISC Collections take?

JISC Collections Request for Proposals –

– Get as many resources and providers using the JISC model licence as possible

– Better pricing

Improve usage and value of JISC Collections’ National Agreements

– Develop portals to bring perpetually licensed material (and JISC funded material) together in one place

Help academic libraries manage their collections and demonstrate value for money

– Usage Statistics portal

– Briefing papers for every JISC Collections’ member on savings from JISC Collections archival purchases

– Licensing that is more about “Can” than “Can’t”

• Unfairly, libraries often seen as a barrier to institutional ambitions!



Thank you for listening

Liam Earney

[email protected]

Documents

National licensing in a time of economic uncertainty: JISC Collections response to the economic & financial crisis