Dear List Members

I have not done a study of the admin costs maintaining ejournals, but know
that they must be high in our institution as they are taking up
increasingly large chunks of time. I do know that in the past couple of
years, since we have involved our agents, the time each title is taking is
less than it used to be (There are just more e titles now)

What I find particularly tiresome is the increasing tendency of the large
publishers  to deal direct with libraries rather than use agents, This
increases the admin time spent, especially round renewal time, as we have
to ensure we receive a renewal invoice and deal with the publisher
separately. This is expensive in time and especially for our accounts dept,
\which needs to raise cheques for a number of publishers rather than write
one large cheque to an agent.

We have already had times when we have lost access to titles because the
publisher did not send a renewal invoice.

I have expressed my dissatisfaction to the publishers concerned but have
got nowhere. Is this customer service????? Why can't libraries co\hoose
whether to go direct or use an agent?Why should we be forced to go direct
if it does not suit us?

What do others think about this policy?

regards
Shirley Sullivan
At 11:00 AM 7/8/02 +0100, Rollo Turner wrote:
>Counting the cost of e-journal admin
>Has anyone out there stopped to measure the costs of administering
>e-journals? By this I mean the cost of subscription management and access
>provision. It seems to me that as the process of acquiring journals changes
>a great deal of simplicity is being lost with consequent and often quite
>substantial impacts on cost.
>
>As a result the ASA is interested in how we can ease this process, and would
>welcome feedback on the following (and will be happy to share any results
>with the list):
>
>1. Have your costs for e-Journal admin risen over the last year & roughly by
>how much?
>2. Do you see this increasing/decreasing over the next year?
>3. In which areas does your agent help most/least currently?
>4. If there were additional resources available from your agent where these
>would be best targeted?
>
>The background on this is that libraries now buy their electronic journals
>in a number of different ways - from the normal subscription process through
>an agent to consortium deals no two of which ever seem to be similar let
>alone the same! In some cases however the journals publishers request that
>the journals must be ordered directly - even when the library may have
>preferred to use an agent. Others are acquired through consortia but may be
>paid for by the individual members through an agent, directly or through the
>consortium. The so-called Big Deal with deep discount prices has also
>greatly increased the administrative complexity for everyone concerned, they
>tie in funds for lengthy periods of time and may, if budgets are suddenly
>reduced, force libraries to cancel titles from smaller and high quality
>society publishers to keep some of these Big Deals going.
>
>These different means of acquiring content mean that each individual library
>has had to assume more control over the management and reporting on the
>electronic journals taken. This is a role that is generally performed by
>subscription agents who have the necessary infrastructure available to
>provide value-added services such as special billing arrangements,
>interfacing to library ILS services and management reporting. Instead if
>each library is now doing more not less subscription administration the
>overall costs are likely to rise in terms of staff time and resources
>especially if libraries have to set up their own systems.
>
>Agents costs will also rise if more and more electronic titles are handled
>direct at the insistence of the publishers (generally the larger publishers)
>leaving agents to handle the specialist, more varied and widely scattered
>smaller publishers. According to the UK Competition Commission, the big six
>publishers account for about 66% of all expenditure on STM journals for UK
>libraries. If their titles are removed from the agency list, the average
>cost per subscription will increase very significantly and, obviously,
>additional costs will eventually be reflected in their bills to libraries.
>
>
>With this trend and pricing models requiring a variety of different means of
>handling electronic journals, the complexity and cost of handling
>subscriptions may well be increasing much faster than we currently know.
>Agents of course were put on this earth to help reduce the libraries costs
>and administration enabling them to reduce the amount of unproductive
>administration performed by skilled individuals. It seems this sensible
>approach has gone into reverse!
>
>Isn't it time we thought about simplifying the system, so that once again it
>can be handled by properly qualified intermediaries to the benefit of all?
>This may require agents having to learn new and sometimes costly skills,
>publishers agreeing to work with them on electronic journals as they do with
>paper, and agents and consortia agreeing to cooperate more closely in the
>future.
>
>If the customers want this to happen, the suppliers will eventually provide
>it. And it would be good for publishers since it would make it simpler for
>them to sell their journals individually or in packages to their clients in
>a well managed supply chain, thus reducing their administration costs also
>(publishers subscription management costs may also have increased by between
>5 and 15% according to Sally Morris). In short, such a move would be worth
>it financially to everyone.
>
>Rollo Turner
>Secretary General
>Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
>
>PS apologies for cross posting



Shirley Sullivan
Electronic Information Coordinator
Information Division
University of Melbourne
Victoria
Australia 3010
email [log in to unmask]
phone + 61 3 8344 5363
fax + 61 3 8344 5221

Mailing address:
first floor, Baillieu Library
University of Melbourne
Victoria
Australia 3010