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'What Do Libraries Keep When They Cancel the Big Deal?' by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe

Almost every discussion I have about Unsub, whether with librarians or publishers, at some point turns to assumptions about what decisions librarians will or will not make with respect to retaining subscriptions if they turn away from the Big Deal model for subscribing to journal content. To be absolutely clear, the context here is not about those libraries (e.g., University of California or Project DEAL) that walk away from the Big Deal as a result of failed negotiations to secure today’s Bigger Big Deal, the transformative agreement. The context is unbundling, changing from the Big Deal to either a la carte subscriptions or smaller packages of titles. 

There are so many questions one can ask. Do more generous green open access policies carve out the value of subscriptions and make them vulnerable to cancellation? Are libraries overly focused on certain criteria and ignoring others? What about the role of the librarian in collection development and building a collection for the long-term? What criteria do libraries use in selecting which titles to retain? What happens to the journals that don’t get picked up as individual subscriptions? Will certain journals lose out and possibly cease to exist because libraries pick the same journals to retain?  

The universe of libraries that even have Big Deal contracts that might be broken is relatively limited; some research libraries have never been able to afford the Big Deal. Nonetheless, examining those that unbundle can give us some empirical insight into the dynamics at play.  

For more information, read the blog post.