The document discusses the limitations of traditional 'big deal' journal subscriptions for libraries, such as the University of Denver, due to escalating costs and the unsustainability of current academic budgets. It proposes alternatives, including article-level acquisitions and various purchasing models that could maintain access while offering budgetary flexibility for libraries and revenue stability for publishers. Among the options are electronic single-title subscriptions, medium-sized deals, and short-term loans that could potentially replace the big deal system.

1. Article-Level Acquisition:
An Alternative
to the Big Deal?
Oxford University Press LAG
Oxford
May 25, 2012
Michael Levine-Clark
University of Denver

2. Journals – Current Landscape
 Big deals
supplemented by
 Single-title subscriptions
supplemented by
 Article-level acquisition
 On the margins
 ILL
 PDF purchase

3. The Big Deal
 Cost effective
 Incredible deals for University of Denver
 Lots of bang for the buck
 Access to many more titles than possible
with title-by-title selection
 Probably not sustainable with current
academic library budgets

4. The Journal Inflation Problem
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0% Recurring
Non-Recurring
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
FY FY FY FY FY FY
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
(est)

5. Journal Costs – University of
Denver
Aggregators ILL
$123,330 $11,402
5% 0%
Journal
Individual Packages
Journals $1,352,598
$1,144,582 51%
44%

6. Titles Available – By Source
ILL Journal
2,902 0 Packages
5% 0% 10,145
16% Individual
Journals
1,542
2%
Aggregators
49,117
77%

7. Cost Per Journal Title
$800.00 $742.27
$700.00
$600.00
$500.00
$400.00
$300.00
$200.00 $133.33
$100.00
$2.51 $3.93
$0.00
Journal Individual Titles Aggregators ILL
Packages

8. Cost Per Use (Article)
$5.00 $4.70
$4.50
$4.00
$3.50
$3.00
$2.50
$2.00 $1.83
$1.50
$1.00
$0.50 $0.26
$0.00
Journal Individual Titles Aggregators ILL
Packages

9. Cost Per Use (Article)
$45.00 $41.54
$40.00
$35.00
$30.00
$25.00
$20.00
$15.00
$10.00
$4.70
$5.00 $1.83
$0.26
$0.00
Journal Individual Aggregators ILL ILL Copyright
Packages Titles

10. How Do You Replace
the Big Deal?

11. Journal vs. Article
 In electronic environment, the article is
what matters
 The unit most people want
 (Relatively) affordable per item
 Easily discoverable

12. Replacing the Big Deal
 Medium or small deals
 More title-by-title selection
 Unmediated article-level purchase

13. Why DDA is Ideal for Books
 High cost per use (but cheap unit cost)
 Low overall use
 As percentage of collection (40% not
used)
 Per item (most only used 1-2 times)
 High publishing output
 ~1 million titles annually (UNESCO)

14. Articles
(Why DDA May Not Be Ideal)
 Low cost per use (but generally
expensive absolutely)
 High overall use
 Smaller publishing universe (but still
impossible to get it all)
 ~350,000 titles (EBSCO)

15. Current Options
 Expensive PDF lease
 $30+ per article
 Print/download
 Given to end user
 Nothing for library
 Nothing for next user
 Works well for marginal material – not
enough demand to warrant a subscription

16. Current Options
 Read-only short-term loan
 Cambridge University Press model
 Low cost ($5.99) in line with normal cost
per use
 24-hour access
 No download/print
 Another use = another payment
 Might work for core material – but limited
utility

17. A Goal: Replace Big Deal –
Similar Access Level for
Similar Spend

18. Replace Big Deal
 Benefit libraries
 Access to wider range of journals/articles
 Greater budgetary flexibility
 Benefit publishers
 Maintain most revenue in face of
stagnant/shrinking library budgets
 Maintain viability of journals
 Increase access to journals (beyond core)
 Benefit both
 Move from journal to article

19. Possible Models
 Expensive PDF purchase
 $30+ per article
 Print/download
 Full-text access on publisher site
 Available to next user
 Potentially lower cost per use

20. Possible Models
 Cheaper short-term loan
 $1.99
 Print/download
 Single user with expiration

21. Possible Models -
Requirements
 Need a sustainable price
 Need a cap
 At some point the library owns the article
(or journal)
 Do publishers need a guarantee, or do
we assume that good content will be
acquired?

22. Thank You