A somewhat belated response from Edinburgh:
Ian Mowat, University Librarian, confirms "we refused to
contemplate signing an exclusive deal and Blackwell's at that point
backed down and agreed to the possibility of a non-exclusive deal.
We still have not signed up - largely because there is not a local
shop for us to do business with."
The discussion about online reading lists, booksellers etc. has
been useful and thanks to David Newman for reminding me about
the Open Directory Project. (As an aside, has this been objectively
evaluated anywhere? Apologies: I know I should find time to
conduct a literature search...)
Steve
> I understand that Blackwell's have a deal which they are making to
> institutions in the HE community which involves institutions which sign up
> to the deal agreeing to granting Blackwell's an exclusive right to promote
> their service on the institution's Web site. The agreement is as follows
> (note that Headfiller - http://www.headfiller.com/ - is owned by
> Blackwell's):
>
> "Headfiller shall have an exclusive right to promote and sell electronically
> new and secondhand books, ebooks and other teaching materials in any format
> though links from the University's Sites and/or intranet".
>
> I assume this will mean that any organisation which signs up will not be
> allowed to link to competitors such as Amazon. This strikes me as a
> dangerous precedent (should central services be allowed to censor links to
> legitimate organisations), very difficult to enforce (how will it be
> policed, will links to Amazon be expected to be blocked at a firewall) and
> also an unwise business decision (locking yourself into one organisation
> with an exclusive deal).
>
> Any comments on this?
>
> What would you do if you find the marketing wing of your organisation had
> signed up with this deal and the first thing you heard was when you were
> asked to police it?!
>
> Thanks
>
> Brian
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Brian Kelly
> UKOLN
> University of Bath
> BATH
> BA2 7AY
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Phone: (+44) 1225 323943
>
>
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Steve Scott
Temporary Acting Editor
University of Edinburgh Website
Edinburgh University Library
George Square
EDINBURGH EH8 9LJ
Tel [+44] (0)131 650 6954
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