Hi,

 

We use EBSCO as a subscription agent. We order any one-off journal titles, online or whatever format, through EBSCO. Also the very small groups of selected journals on small journal platforms. Going through EBSCO is far more convenient than trying to track and pay for all those titles ourselves.

 

However, we order large journal packages through our consortia. We usually get a discount and avoid the service charge, which multiplied by 5 or 6 digit figures can really add up.

 

I should also mention that for random historical reasons a few of our journals are hybrids. Namely, Science, and our little group of Nature journals: Nature, some “Nature babies”, and Scientific American. We get Science and Nature in print through EBSCO. But the online subscriptions are direct to the vendor. They get treated like generic e-resources and the vendors are paid directly. The total of these pups is $25,000+ for our small liberal arts college so again avoiding the EBSCO service charge is a tactical decision.

 

On a related note, I’ve moved all JSTOR Current Scholarship subscriptions to direct with JSTOR, since JSTOR can usually issue one big invoice.

 

Might seem petty, especially to our friends in EBSCONET land. But I have to continually shave off savings here and there in a somewhat desperate attempt to offset the twin menaces in the library budget: the annual increase in prices of journals and e-resources,  and zero increase to a significant portion of the library budget (seems to have been going on since the financial crisis.) We cancel low-use databases, go online only with journals, order stuff direct; and all this scrambling buys very little space to breathe. E-resources and journals have pretty much eaten up most of the budget that is flexible enough to devote to them. At some point we may have to go PPV for some of our big journal packages.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian

Tutt Library, Colorado College

diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu

(719) 389-6661

(719) 389-6082 (fax)

 

 

 

 

Reflecting on Swets’ status, I’m wondering – how are most libraries placing their orders for online content – through a subscription agent or direct?  Not that Swets’ problem is solely with their subscription agent business, I understand that all of their information services group is affected.

 

 

Cindy Harper

charper@vts.edu

 

 

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