Re: Seven ARL Libraries Face Major Planned or Potential Budget Cuts

["\"FrederickFriend\"" <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk>]

I was also one of those who in the late 1990s supported the Big 
Deal development, in the UK through the Pilot Site Licence 
Initiative and its successor NESLI, now NESLi2, and I agree with 
Anthony that at the time it looked like a win/win/win situation. 
To many people it looks very different now. I do not want to get 
into a blame situation on the reasons why it looks so different, 
but rather point to the way the WWW and other technical 
developments have transformed the opportunities open to all 
stakeholders since the Big Deal was conceived. Academic research 
is now conducted in ways which are very different from the late 
1990s, libraries are becoming electronic resource centres for far 
more than purchased or licensed content, and reader expectations 
have blossomed into new forms of content use like text-mining or 
data-mining.

So where do we go from here? Any new model has to meet new 
expectations and opportunities, which for librarians and 
publishers means moving away from a silo mentality. It must be 
sustainable and affordable, which means a business model to which 
the world-wide academic community can commit. The best option I 
can see developing to meet opportunities and to be both 
sustainable and affordable is the gold OA publication charge 
model, which through bulk purchase could achieve the economies 
promised (but never fully realised) in the Big Deal model and 
also release the advantages of OA to stakeholders. To some gold 
OA bulk purchase may appear a radical solution, but the way 
academic research is developing that model and certain 
stakeholder roles could soon be by-passed by other more 
fundamental changes.

I shall no doubt be criticised for ignoring the potential of 
self-archiving as the way forward, and by others as ignoring the 
complexities of any fundamental change in the world-wide research 
dissemination model. I am not ignoring those factors - they need 
to be examined carefully - but it seems clear that the Big Deal 
has had its day and we need to explore a viable and affordable 
alternative to meet the opportunities and challenges in the new 
environment.

Fred Friend
JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant
Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL
(N.B. The views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of any
organization with which I am associated.)