[no subject]

["Paul Harwood" <pharwood@contentcomplete.com>]

Press Release

New agreements give access to thousands of online journals

Second successful year for NESLi2 as more online content becomes available
to UK academics

14th February 2005. JISC, the Joint Information Systems Committee, today
announced that it has secured agreements for 2005 with nine major
international publishers via NESLi2, the national electronic journals
initiative for further and higher education, funded by JISC.

In addition to the renewal of significant agreements with Blackwell
Publishing and Oxford University Press, brand new agreements were
concluded with AAAS for Science Online, The American Chemical Society, The
British Psychological Society, BMJ Publishing Group, Cell Press, The
Institute of Physics and Sage. These agreements will mean considerable
savings for the education and research communities through the lower cost
of journals secured through national negotiations.

This successful second round of negotiations follows the launch of NESLi2
in 2003 and the nine publisher agreements concluded for 2004. The 2004
agreements with publishers saved the further and higher education
community over =A33m and the 2005 agreements will yield further savings.
In total, over 4,600 online journals are now available to subscribing
institutions in the UK academic community as a result of NESLi2
agreements, which have been handled by JISC's appointed negotiation
agent, Content Complete Ltd.

Lorraine Estelle, Collections Manager at JISC said: "We are delighted to
have completed another successful round of negotiations on behalf of our
institutions. We now have many of the world's leading scholarly publishers
working with us in NESLi2 and value their participation and willingness to
try and accommodate our requirements=94."

Dr Tom Graham, Librarian at the University of Newcastle and Chair of
JISC's Journals Working Group said: "NESLi2 was introduced after a review
of previous methods of handling national negotiations. It is clear to the
Working Group that the first two years of working in this way has led to
significant improvements in the work of obtaining access to the output of
major journal publishers for the academic community, with many benefits to
our staff and students. We look forward to continuing this progress in
negotiations for 2006."

The list of publishers to be included in discussions for 2006 has recently
been finalised, with negotiations commencing in mid-March.

For further information, please contact Paul Harwood (Content Complete)
on +44 (0) 1993 880044 or  <mailto:pharwood@contentcomplete.com>

Lorraine Estelle (JISC) on 020 7848 2563 or l.estelle@jisc.ac.uk

Notes for editors:

1. NESLi2 was launched in June 2003 and covers subscription agreements
for the years 2004 to 2007. It is the successor scheme to the original
NESLI which ran from 1997-2002. More information about the initiative,
including a list of the publishers participating in 2004 and 2005, can
be found at: <http://www.nesli2.ac.uk/>

2. JISC, the Joint Information Systems Committee, is a committee of the UK
further and higher education funding bodies, and is responsible for
supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology
(ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research. It is best known for
providing the SuperJANET network, a range of advice and support services,
and a portfolio of high-quality resources. Information about the JISC, its
services and programmes can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ 
Contact Philip Pothen on +44 (0)20 7848 2935, email p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk

3. Content Complete Ltd (CCL) provides outsourced negotiations and related
support services to academic and research libraries and institutions in
the area of digital content. CCL's partner in NESLi2 is MIMAS, the
JISC/ESRC supported national data centre, which provides the helpdesk and
communications functions of NESLi2. For further information on Content
Complete Ltd and MIMAS visit www.contentcomplete.com and www.mimas.ac.uk

Paul Harwood
Director
Content Complete Ltd
Unit 7, North Leigh Business Park
North Leigh
Oxfordshire
OX29 6SW  UK
Email:  <mailto:pharwood@contentcomplete.com>
Tel: +44 (0) 1993 880044
www.contentcomplete.com

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