Talk by Tracy Thompson of NELLCO at the 2015 US Law LAC Summit.

1. What it is and why it matters
TRANSPARENCY

2. TRANSPARENT –
OXFORD AMERICAN WRITER’S THESAURUS
Adj. – Obvious, evident, self-evident, undisguised,
unconcealed, conspicuous, patent, clear, plain, (as) plain
as the nose on your face, apparent, unmistakable, easily
discerned, manifest, palpable, indisputable, unambiguous,
unequivocal.
ANTONYMS – ambiguous, obscure.
(presumed ant. – disguised, concealed, mistakable,
disputable, equivocal)

3. OLD SCHOOL PRICING THINKING
From ATG, June 2015 – Mike Gruenberg’s “Both Sides
Now: Vendors and Librarians – Can You Give Me a
‘Ballpark’ Price of What This Will Cost?”
• Sales rep: “Can you share with me what’s in your
budget allocated to buy the product I just described?”
• Librarian: “I really can’t give you that information until I
know what you’re offering as incentives to buy.”

4. STALEMATE

5. TRANSPARENT PRICING
• Necessary for an atmosphere of trust
• Necessary for informed, ethical decision-making
• Transparency in pricing requires that information
providers:
(1) share the pricing model* employed to arrive at the
price and
(2) not prohibit procurers, through the use of
nondisclosure agreements or license clauses, from
sharing that information with others.
*not just ‘price’

6. MORE THAN JUST A GOOD IDEA . . .
An ethical mandate
• AALL Ethical Principles
• AALL Competencies of Law Librarianship
• Guide to Fair Business Practices
• Code of Best Practices for Licensing Electronic
Resources

7. NELLCO STATEMENT ON TRANSPARENCY IN PRICING
Librarians are fiscal stewards of their institution's resources. As such, they have
a responsibility to make informed acquisition decisions with respect to electronic
resources. Without transparent pricing practices, truly informed decision-making
cannot be realized. Transparency in pricing requires that information providers
(1) share the pricing model employed to arrive at the price and (2) not prohibit
procurers, through the use of nondisclosure agreements or license clauses, from
sharing that information with others. In an effort to support our member
libraries in meeting their duty to their institutions, NELLCO will require that
all information providers with whom we negotiate from this date forward
meet these minimum standards of transparency.