Re: Aggregator embargoes

["MARGARET LANDESMAN" <mlandesm@library.utah.edu>]

Fred,

Publishers have always tried to sell direct to libraries and we have
always resisted, both with books and with journals, because there are just
too many of them.

Springer used to offer us enticing discounts to place blanket orders with
them and Gale and Bowker I seem to recall used to insist on our ordering
direct.  We hated it. We do not want to issue more purchase orders, deal
with more invoices, interface more vendor systems with our ILS, write more
checks, etc.

I suppose consortia might replace vendors in some cases - but they're
still an intermediary, Margaret Landesman Utah


From:           	Fred Friend <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk>
To:             	liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject:        	Aggregator embargoes
Date sent:      	Mon, 21 May 2001 15:07:14 EDT
Send reply to:  	liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu

Many thanks to contributors to liblicense for bringing into the open this
question of aggregator embargoes. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the
situation, purchasers have a right to know what they will or will not
receive for their money, and most of us have not been aware of these
restrictions agreed between publishers and aggregators. Now at least we
know to ask the question of aggregators before we place an order.

It appears that these embargoes are part of the struggle for
intermediaries - publishers, aggregators, agents and librarians - to
secure a role for themselves in the new environment. My reading of the
situation is that publishers can now perform many of the functions of
other intermediaries and only want to push content through aggregators and
agents (and indeed librarians) when they gain revenue additional to that
revenue they would gain by selling direct. Agents appear to see their role
as aggregators and want to offer the customer as wide a choice of content
as possible. Librarians also want to offer their users as wide a choice of
content as possible, and so perhaps have more sympathy with the
aggregators on this question of embargoes. On the other hand librarians
are also wondering whether they could offer better value for money to
their users by dealing direct with publishers.

Fred Friend
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Frederick J.Friend, 
Director Scholarly Communication,
University College London,
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Margaret Landesman
Head, Collection Development
Marriott Library
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0860
phone: (801) 581-7741
fax: (801) 585-3464
e-mail: mlandesm@library.utah.edu