[Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks

Thu Feb 23 14:12:55 EST 2012

Tony,
certainly it is and you can also find it on the right hand side of the page
 http://www.arl.org/sc/marketplace/license/index.shtml
The document was developed by a Task Force and approved by our Board.
If you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Julia Blixrud

2012/2/23 Tony G Horava <thorava at uottawa.ca>

>  Thanks Celeste; this is very useful. I assume it is ok to share this
> document within our consortia, to compare and contrast with existing
> practices and requirements?****
>
> ** **
>
> Best wishes, Tony****
>
> ** **
>
> *Tony Horava**
> *Associate University Librarian (Collections)****
>
> Bibliothécaire associé (Collections)****
>
> University of Ottawa / l'Universite d'Ottawa
> Tel : (613) 562-5800 ext. 3645
> Fax : (613) 562-5196****
>
> thorava at uottawa.ca****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org [mailto:
> lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] *On Behalf Of *Celeste Feather
> *Sent:* February-23-12 11:20 AM
> *To:* LYRASIS ARL Collection Development Contacts
> *Subject:* Re: [Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks****
>
> ** **
>
> Tony,****
>
> ** **
>
> The checklist I referred to earlier was included in the RFP document that
> ARL sent out last year. As part of the agreement between LYRASIS and ARL,
> LYRASIS is charged to negotiate according to the licensing principles and
> specifications in the RFP. I’m attaching the list as excerpted from the RFP.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Celeste****
>
> ** **
>
> Celeste Feather****
>
> Licensing Program Account Manager****
>
> LYRASIS****
>
> celeste.feather at lyrasis.org****
>
> 800-999-8558 ext. 2954 (Toll-free)****
>
> 678-235-2954 (Direct)****
>
> 404-550-6459 (Cell)****
>
> celeste.feather (Skype)****
>
> ** **
>
> *www.lyrasis.org*
>
> * *
>
> *LYRASIS: Advancing Libraries Together.*
>
> * *
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org [mailto:
> lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] *On Behalf Of *Tony G Horava
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 23, 2012 10:35 AM
> *To:* 'LYRASIS ARL Collection Development Contacts'
> *Subject:* Re: [Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks****
>
> ** **
>
> Hi Celeste,****
>
>  ****
>
> This is a very useful discussion, and I certainly agree with what Louis
> has written below regarding governing law provisions. ****
>
> You mentioned a ‘checklist of licensing issues’ that ARL has created and
> that you are using as a guideline.  Can this be shared?****
>
> On the ARL site I found a very old document re licensing strategies,
> http://www.arl.org/sc/marketplace/license/licbooklet.shtml I assume you
> are referring to a much more recent document...****
>
>  ****
>
> Nb – thanks for the business analysis re Project Muse ebooks – this is
> very important information for us to digest.****
>
>  ****
>
> Best wishes, Tony****
>
>  ****
>
> *Tony Horava**
> *Associate University Librarian (Collections)****
>
> Bibliothécaire associé (Collections)****
>
> University of Ottawa / l'Universite d'Ottawa
> Tel : (613) 562-5800 ext. 3645
> Fax : (613) 562-5196****
>
> thorava at uottawa.ca****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> [mailto:lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] *On Behalf Of *Celeste
> Feather
> *Sent:* February-23-12 9:47 AM
> *To:* LYRASIS ARL Collection Development Contacts
> *Subject:* Re: [Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks****
>
>  ****
>
> Louis,****
>
>  ****
>
> Thanks for raising this important point. ARL has created a checklist of
> licensing issues that I am using as a guideline for negotiations with
> vendors. The position that ARL has taken on governing law is that a license
> should remain silent on this point, specifically because we want to create
> agreements that are acceptable across state and country borders. I suspect
> there are some legal teams at institutions that require specific mention of
> local governing law in a license agreement, and if that is the case, then
> there will need to be a short amendment to a central license agreement
> specifically for that institution.****
>
>  ****
>
> In my own experience at a large public institution several years ago,
> while a mention of specific state law was preferred in a license agreement,
> the university lawyers also would accept silence on the matter as a
> fallback position. Obviously the more we can unite behind a single
> agreement, the more efficiency we can bring to the process. If amendments
> and exceptions need to be made though, we’ll create a mechanism to make
> that happen.****
>
>  ****
>
> Celeste****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> Celeste Feather****
>
> Licensing Program Account Manager****
>
> LYRASIS****
>
> celeste.feather at lyrasis.org****
>
> 800-999-8558 ext. 2954 (Toll-free)****
>
> 678-235-2954 (Direct)****
>
> 404-550-6459 (Cell)****
>
> celeste.feather (Skype)****
>
>  ****
>
> *www.lyrasis.org*****
>
>  ****
>
> *LYRASIS: Advancing Libraries Together.*****
>
> * *****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> [mailto:lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] *On Behalf Of *Louis Houle
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:43 AM
> *To:* 'LYRASIS ARL Collection Development Contacts'
> *Subject:* Re: [Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks****
>
>  ****
>
> Good morning Celeste,****
>
>  ****
>
> Thank you for the update and good luck with the negotiations. I would like
> to bring one important issue with any License Agreement: the governing law.
> From the 126 ARL members, 18 of them are located in Canada. As you probably
> know, when we do negotiate a license in Canada with a non-Canadian vendor
> we do want to have the License Agreement to be governed by the specific
> laws of one’s province (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, etc.). Within the ARL
> context and knowing also that in the United States an institution always
> want to have the governing laws of its own state, how do you think this can
> be managed for such a deal. I do not have all the answers but I just want
> to bring this important issue to ARL and LYRASIS.****
>
>  ****
>
> Louis Houle****
>
> McGill University****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> [mailto:lyrarl-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] *On Behalf Of *Celeste
> Feather
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 22, 2012 17:18
> *To:* lyrarl at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> *Subject:* [Lyrarl] Update on Project MUSE and JSTOR ebooks****
>
>  ****
>
> All –****
>
>  ****
>
> I want to provide an update for you regarding the ongoing negotiations
> that LYRASIS is conducting with vendors on behalf of ARL and its members.
> University press ebooks are the first priority. Members of the ARL
> licensing working group, Tom Sanville from LYRASIS, and I met with Dean
> Smith and Melanie Schaffner of Project MUSE at ALA Midwinter in January.
> Kathleen Keane, the Director of Johns Hopkins University Press, also
> attended to add perspectives from the UPCC publishers to our discussion.**
> **
>
>  ****
>
> Apart from pricing, the primary issue seems to be the lack of completeness
> of the MUSE collections. As a group, the MUSE/UPCC publishers are
> withholding around 50% of their academic title output from the MUSE
> collections. We learned that MUSE/UPCC built their business model based on
> feedback from librarians that they wanted to purchased ebooks with
> unlimited use and few DRM restrictions. The economic reality is that many
> of the UPCC publishers receive substantial percentages of revenue (up to
> 50% on some titles) from sales of their books to students where adopted for
> course reading.  They cannot take the economic risk of selling these ebooks
> to libraries for unlimited use. Therefore, the publishers are guessing
> which titles are likely to be adopted for courses and are withholding them
> from the MUSE collections.  Typically it may be several years after
> publication before it is clear whether a title will be subject to any
> significant course adoption.  Other titles are excluded due to digital
> rights clearance issues, but these seem to be the minority of the titles
> withheld.****
>
>  ****
>
> Non-inclusive collections provided by MUSE create title tracking problems
> for libraries, as it is cumbersome to determine which new titles are
> expected to be part of a collection and which others will need to be
> purchased separately. One way to improve the situation is to make the MUSE
> collections more complete, but there will need to be a different business
> model with limited use for titles that are already adopted for courses or
> that later become adopted. Without some use restriction on certain titles,
> publishers cannot afford to put all of their titles in the MUSE
> collections. We discussed some possible ways forward at the ALA meeting and
> felt that the discussion was productive for all parties.****
>
>  ****
>
> On the pricing front, I gathered purchase history data for books with 2010
> imprint dates from 12 of the larger MUSE/UPCC publishers in an effort to
> calculate average amounts spent by various sizes of libraries. I used data
> from OhioLINK, the Colorado Alliance, the Triangle Research Libraries
> Network, and 2 other ARL libraries to show purchasing patterns in 111
> libraries from these 12 publishers in 2010. The data strongly suggested
> that the pricing for the MUSE collections needed to be reassessed. In order
> to acquire the same type of publisher content that had been purchased in
> the past, libraries would be required to spend substantially more under the
> initial MUSE pricing. The collection prices were roughly along the lines of
> what large research libraries on average have been spending for content
> from these publishers. However, due to the lack of completeness of the
> collections, libraries would need to increase their overall annual
> expenditure with these publishers significantly in order to acquire both
> the MUSE collections and the needed titles that are withheld.****
>
>  ****
>
> Project MUSE staff met with the UPCC advisory board on Feb. 9 and
> discussed these issues with them, and we are expecting a report from that
> meeting soon. We are hopeful that negotiations will be productive and that
> we will be able to put a new offer for MUSE/UPCC ebooks on the table in
> April, 2012. We also are working on licensing issues in compliance with ARL
> requirements and may need to build some timelines into a license to give
> MUSE appropriate time to meet all of our requests. At this time there does
> not appear to be any showstopper issue in the license document.****
>
> We also have had an initial meeting and conversations with JSTOR regarding
> their forthcoming ebook collections and are waiting for them to share
> additional information with the working group. JSTOR is very aware of the
> ARL group interest.****
>
>  ****
>
> I’ll be glad to share more information or respond to any questions you
> have on this topic, and I’ll keep you updated as the negotiations continue.
> ****
>
>  ****
>
> Celeste****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> Celeste Feather****
>
> Licensing Program Account Manager****
>
> LYRASIS****
>
> celeste.feather at lyrasis.org****
>
> 800-999-8558 ext. 2954 (Toll-free)****
>
> 678-235-2954 (Direct)****
>
> 404-550-6459 (Cell)****
>
> celeste.feather (Skype)****
>
>  ****
>
> *www.lyrasis.org*****
>
>  ****
>
> *LYRASIS: Advancing Libraries Together.*****
>
> * *****
>
>  ****
>
> * *****
>
>  ****
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Lyrarl at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/lyrarl
>
>

-- 
Julia C. Blixrud <jblix at arl.org>
Assistant Executive Director, Scholarly Communication, ARL <www.arl.org/sc/>
21 Dupont Cir NW, Ste 800, Washington DC 20036
  Tel: (202) 296-2296  Fax: (202) 872-0884
  Cell: (202) 251-4678  Other Tel: (785) 841-5550
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