Joint Open Letter to International Publishers

["Adrian" <adrian.stanley13@gmail.com>]

Dear list server readers

Our company, who work with both international publishers and 
Chinese libraries/consortia were asked to post this letter and 
distribute it; if anyone wants to send me responses off line I'm 
happy to collate them and pass on, regards Adrian

Major Chinese libraries united again unreasonable price hike by 
some international publishers.

On September 1, 2010, 33 major Chinese libraries, led by National 
Science & Technology Libraries, National Library of China, 
Beijing University Library, and National Science Library of CAS, 
issued a joint statement to international publishers to protest 
the planned unreasonable price increases by a few international 
journal publishers, and to announce joint actions in negotiation 
with those publishers to keep down the price inflation rate.

The action takes place when the subscription prices for the 
database products from those publishers have already been raised 
more than 10% yearly over last few years and library subscription 
budgets have been forced to double or even triple in a very short 
period. Already some libraries began to cut off subscriptions. 
But these few publishers, while making an annual profit growth 
far above the general market, are now asking annual increase of 
more than 10% again for the next contract period.

The pretences given from the publishers are considered totally 
unreasonable and unacceptable by the Chinese libraries, and will 
inevitably destroy the sustainability of the supply chain, while 
other publishers' market shares and vitality will be also put in 
jeopardy.

The libraries call for reasonable and cooperative working 
together to achieve a fair, affordable, and sustainable market. 
At the same time, the libraries will actively explore and support 
ways of open access to break free from the monopoly of some 
publishers.

The libraries also issued a joint statement to Chinese library 
users, calling them to support their libraries in the action, and 
calling those in editorial boards of international journals and 
learned societies to put pressure on their journal publishers to 
ensure sustainable access to knowledge.

The Chinese texts of the two statements can be found at:
Joint Open Letter to International Publishers:
http://www.las.ac.cn/subpage/Information_Content.jsp?InformationID=5370
Joint Open Letter to Chinese Readers:
http://www.csdl.ac.cn/subpage/Information_Content.jsp?InformationID=5371
The English text of the open letter can be found at
http://www.las.ac.cn/subpage/Information_Content.jsp?InformationID=5372

Adrian Stanley
Chief Executive Officer
The Charlesworth Group (USA)
Web:  www.charlesworth.com