***Apologies for cross-posting***

PRESS RELEASE

JANUARY 2000

BLACKWELL PUBLISHERS OFFERS NESLI INDIVIDUAL ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AT 
PREFERENTIAL TERMS

The NESLI Managing Agent and Blackwell Publishers are delighted to 
announce a proposal to UK universities, offering electronic access to 
220 leading humanities and social science journals at preferential 
rates for the duration of 2000. This agreement follows in the 
footsteps of a similar offer made by the publisher to NESLI in 1999.  

The agreement for 2000, as for 1999, presents UK Higher Education 
Institutions (HEIs) with the opportunity to purchase individual 
journals to which they do not currently subscribe for a heavily 
discounted flat fee per title. Back files from 1997, where available, 
are also included in the offer at no extra charge. This attractive 
offer is valid throughout 2000, and the flat fee per title applies at 
all times during the year. Users will be able to access the journals 
via the dedicated NESLI/SwetsNet interface, offering a range of 
searching, browsing and alerting functions.  

Albert Prior, Publisher Relations Manager - Electronic Services, at 
Swets Subscription Service, commented: "The NESLI Managing Agent is 
very pleased that negotiations with Blackwell Publishers have 
resulted in this offer to UK universities. Individual title selection 
and free back file access are welcome elements in this proposal, and 
the discounted flat fee per title is firmly in keeping with our 
objective of providing HEIs with cost-effective access to publishers' 
electronic journals."  

Pippa Scoones, Sales and Marketing Director at Blackwell Publishers, 
said: "As the world's largest independent publisher of social science 
journals, we are continually looking for new ways of ensuring that we 
provide the academic community with the information they need in a 
timely way. Electronic journals help to achieve this goal by 
revolutionising the way in which information is disseminated, and 
innovative schemes such as NESLI enable us to provide an even better 
service to libraries and their users."  

NESLI has been delivering electronic journals to the UK higher 
education and research community since January 1999. Its objective is 
to simplify current approaches to the purchasing and management of 
electronic serials. In keeping with this, key features of the 
initiative include: publisher negotiations focusing on preferential 
terms and 'added value'; a Model Licence for publishers and 
librarians; a single interface for e-journal access (SwetsNet); 
ATHENS authentication; and a NESLI web site for disseminating 
information about the service. Linking from ISI's secondary 
information services to the full text of NESLI journals is also 
planned for introduction shortly. 

Five publishers, including Blackwell Publishers, participated in 
NESLI in 1999. All have either made new offers for 2000, or their 
1999 offers were 'multi-year' and so extend into this year. A further 
five publishers have made proposals to NESLI for 2000, including 
Kluwer Academic Publishers and Academic Press. It is anticipated that 
the number of journals licensed under NESLI in 2000 will be 
approximately 2,500.  

Further information about the NESLI initiative can be found at the 
home page: http://www.nesli.ac.uk  

Further information about Blackwell Publishers can be found at: 
http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/ The NESLI Managing Agent: A 
consortium of Swets & Zeitlinger and Manchester Computing at the 
University of Manchester (MIMAS) has been appointed by JISC (the UK 
Joint Information Systems Committee) as the Managing Agent for NESLI. 
The Managing Agent undertakes negotiations with publishers, 
coordinates delivery of the electronic material, handles 
subscriptions and oversees the day-to-day operation of the programme 
to ensure that it provides value for money through cost effective 
operation.



Alison Murphy
For the NESLI Managing Agent
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Alison Murphy
NESLI Helpdesk            |  Tel: +44 (0)161 275 7919
Manchester Computing      |  Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6040
University of Manchester  |  Email: [log in to unmask]
Oxford Road
Manchester   M13 9PL
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