I think "cost-based fee" is there way of saying the fee won't attempt to make them a profit, that it will be based on their costs of providing the content in that archival format to you for you to keep in-house. That's different from having access lightened up on a dark archive like Portico, which is only available if the publisher doesn't offer hosting anymore (eg goes bankrupt).

If that publisher also participates in Portico/LOCKSS, then this contract clause is just giving you another worst-case option of self-hosting for a one-time fee for their costs of transferring the data to you.

At least that's how I interpret it. Anyone else disagree?

I would at this point like to give a "plug" for my favorite publisher/vendor on this topic, Gale/Cengage, who immediately provide for free self-hosting copies of their reference ebooks that you purchase, in addition to them hosting it for a reasonable hosting fee. Even though we've never needed to do that, and would not look forward to figuring out how to self-host reference books well, I really appreciate that we have the option already built into our purchases with them and don't need to wait for worst-case to happen to get our own backup copies. I wish every ebook publisher did this. I know, that's books, not journals.

Melissa Belvadi

Collections Librarian

University of Prince Edward Island

mbelvadi@upei.ca 902-566-0581

my public calendar

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 4:55 PM, Andrew Kelly <akelly@paulsmiths.edu> wrote:

Hi All,

We’re considering the permanent purchase of a set of journal back issues from a professional society, in lieu of a recently increased subscription.

The publisher’s license includes this line about archiving “[publisher], in its discretion, will either continue online access to the same material on [publisher]’s server or provide an archival copy in the electronic medium selected by [publisher], at a reasonable cost-based fee.”

I recognize that other publishers will often have archival access at no additional cost through LOCKSS or Portico etc, and this appears to require an additional fee.

So far, this particular publisher seems likely to have a different view on what constitutes “reasonable” in this context than I do.

Has anyone had the experience of activating a clause like this? Have you seen what a “reasonable cost-based fee” amounts to?

(I’ve also never seen the phrase “cost-based fee” before, have I just missed it elsewhere or is this sort of silly at first blush? What else would a fee be based upon if not a cost? The tears of serials librarians?)

Do I have any room for negotiating the terms here? Could I just strike out the part about a fee when I sign and return it? (Assuming we can afford the one-time purchase in any case…)

Thanks,

Andrew

Andrew M. Kelly

Cataloging & E-Resources Librarian

Paul Smith’s College Library

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