A recent article in Wired Campus by Jennifer Howard calls attention to the announcement by a group representing British research libraries that they would not sign agreements with Wiley and Elsevier for journal packages–so-called “big deals”–unless a significant price reduction were offered. The group represents many of the most prominent university libraries in the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge. Many US libraries have recently backed away from such agreements, which often include publishers like Sage, Nature Publishing Group, Springer and Taylor and Francis, as well as Elsevier and Wiley. The University of Iowa Libraries is watching these developments with interest. Our current contracts with Wiley, Springer and Nature all expire at the end of 2011.
For the story, see http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/british-research-libraries-say-no-to-big-deal-serials-packages/32371?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
