© ebsco the role of the intermediary (subscription agent) julie boyd-reynolds ebsco information...

The Role of the Intermediary

(Subscription Agent)

Julie Boyd-ReynoldsEBSCO Information Services

Topics to be covered

• The Information chain• The Supply chain and its

characteristics• Serial supply ‘life cycle’• Business characteristics of the supply

chain• Why agents/intermediaries exist

Topics to be covered

• The changing landscape• ‘Agent’ Initiatives in the electronic

environment• ‘The ‘big deal’• Who pays?• Meeting the needs of our

communities

The information chainPlayers in the print environment

AuthorPublisher

Subscription AgentLibraryReader

Author

Reader

? Publisher

? Subscription agent

? Library

The information chainOpen Access Model

Academics & Researchers

Authors & Readers

Libraries Primary Publishers

Subscription Agents

Traditional Model of Scholarly Publishing

Circa 1960

Serials Supply Chain

Abstracting & Indexing Services

Authors & Readers

Libraries Primary Publishers

Subscription Agents

Traditional Model of Scholarly Publishing

Circa 1980

Document Delivery Services

Online Information

Services

Secondary Publishers

Print, CD-Rom

Authors & Readers

Libraries

Primary Publishers

Subscription Agents

New Model of Scholarly Publishing

Document Delivery Services

Online Information

Services

Library Purchasing Consortia

Open Access Publishers

Publishers contracted out

Aggregated Gateways

Publishers Online Services

Subscription Agents

Print and Online Gateways

Secondary Publishers

Print, CD-Rom, Online Content Aggregators

Content Negotiation

Agents

The supply chain – complexity

Authors?00,000

Publishers60,000+

Libraries?0,000

Readers?000,000

Titles280,000+

Online Titles14,000+

Organisations?,000

Select & Evaluate options

Catalogue records

Ensure delivered

Serials resource life cycle

Order & pay

Bibliographic changes

Missing issues/no service

Management

Information

Renewal criteria/decisi

The Subscription

agent as intermediary

Provide Support

EvaluateMonitor

Administer

Provide Access

Acquire

Electronic resource life cycle

Trial useTrial use

Assess need/budget

License terms

License terms OrderOrder

PayPayPricePrice

EvaluateEvaluate

Acquire

IP AddressesIP Addresses

RegisterRegister

Proxy ServersProxy Servers

CatalogueCatalogue

Portals/Access lists

Campus authentication

URL maintenance

Provide Access

Acquire

ClaimingClaiming

User IDsUser IDs

Admin module information

Preferences (store)

Holdings listsHoldings lists

Access restrictions

View rights for use

Administer

Provide Access

Acquire

Provide SupportProblem logProblem log

Hardware needs

Software needs

Contact infoContact info

Troubleshoot/ triage

Administer

Provide Access

Acquire

Provide Support

EvaluateMonitor

Problem logProblem log

Usage statsUsage stats

Downtime analysis

Review problemsReview

problems

User feedback

Administer

Provide Access

Acquire

ClaimingClaiming

User IDsUser IDs

Preferences (store)

Access restrictions

View rights for use

Provide Support

EvaluateMonitor

Hardware needs

Software needs

Downtime analysis

problems

User feedback

Administer

Trial useTrial use

Assess need/budget

License terms

PayPayPricePrice

EvaluateEvaluate IP AddressesIP Addresses

RegisterRegister

CatalogueCatalogue

URL maintenance

Provide Access

Acquire

ClaimingClaiming

User IDsUser IDs

Preferences (store)

Access restrictions

View rights for use

Provide Support

EvaluateMonitor

Hardware needs

Software needs

Downtime analysis

problems

User feedback

Administer

New processes introduced

Trial useTrial use

Assess need/budget

License terms

PayPayPricePrice

EvaluateEvaluate IP AddressesIP Addresses

RegisterRegister

CatalogueCatalogue

URL maintenance

Acquire

Provide Access

Provide Support

EvaluateMonitor

Title listsTitle lists

Administer

Provide AccessUsage statsUsage stats

Fulfillment reports

Offer trialOffer trial

Marketing/ Sales

License terms

Order handling

InvoicesInvoices

PricingPricing

Acquire

Hosting siteHosting site

IP AddressesIP Addresses

Metasearch/ Z39.50

Durable URL Support

RegistrationRegistration

Subscription upgrades

ClaimingClaiming

User IDsUser IDs

IP ChangesIP Changes

Title Lists for packages

Enforce License terms

Title ChangesTitle Changes

Subscriptionproblems

Hardware problemsHardware problems

Software problemsSoftware problems

Customer Service

Technical Support

Publishers

Business Characteristics of Serials SupplyPrint and Electronic Environment

Acquisition ManagementPayment

Multi Transactional & Low Margins & High Volume

•New Orders•Transition•Renewals•Cancellations•Customer Needs•Publisher Needs•Licensing•Access•Consolidation

•Secure•In-Advance•Prompt•Methods•Currency•Invoicing

•Claims•Title/Frequency &•URL Changes•Management Information•Quality Assurance•Archiving•Authentication•Usage Stats•Price capping•Bundle analysis•Cancellations auditing

Awareness

•Alerting/SDI•Catalogues•Database•Specimen Copies•Quotations•Inflation Forecasts

Authors?00,000

Publishers60,000+

Libraries?0,000

Readers?000,000

Titles280,000+

Organisations?,000

So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?

Authors?00,000

Publishers60,000+

Libraries?0,000

Readers?000,000

Titles280,000+

Organisations?,000

Authors?00,000

Publishers60,000+

Libraries?0,000

Readers?000,000

Titles280,000+

Organisations?,000

So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?Authors?00,000

Publishers60,000+

Libraries?0,000

Readers?000,000

Titles280,000+

Organisations?,000

Simplify

Add value

Representing thousands of libraries to the publishers

Representing thousands of publishers to the libraries

Simplify & Add Value?

• Economies of Scale • Reduced Overheads through

eased administration.• Rights Management• Currency Management

• Outsourcing/consolidation

Simplify & Add Value?

• Licensing & Authentication• Awareness/Alerting

• ILS Interfaces• Abstract & Full-text Databases

• Electronic Linking• Industry Knowledge & Expertise

Challenges……brought on by changes in the landscape

The changing role of Intermediaries in the electronic world

• Declining budgets• Price increases• New technology• eJournal Management• Linking & OpenURL

• Access v Holdings• Outsourcing• ILS integration • Consortia• Distance learning• Open Access

‘Agent’ InitiativesSupplying Electronic Information

• Aggregation Services • Model Licenses

• Agents as negotiators• EDI & E-commerce

• ‘Software’ services & tools

‘Traditional’ Text Aggregators

• Full text plus A&I– Potential one stop shop for user– Extra revenue stream for publisher

• Business model– Low entry cost for publishers– Aggregator does the work & takes

risk– Recent volumes embargoed to

protect subscription revenue?– Library widen content base &

electronic availability

EBSCOhost ‘databases’, Ovid, ProQuest & Gale

‘Contracted out’ Hosting Aggregators

• Hosts full text in place of publisher – Restricted to contracted publishers

• Business model- publisher outsourcing service– charge to publisher– Publisher retains subscription revenue

(existing model)

MetaPress, Extenza, Highwire & Ingenta

Gateway & Hosting aggregators• Point and hosts full text

– Potential one stop shop for user (headers/abstracts & full-text)

– High usage– Avoids data ‘silos’

• Business model– Low /No charge to Agents customers– Publisher retains subscription revenue

(existing model)– Library widens content base & electronic

availability– Pay for view– Linking

EBSCOhost EJS & SwetsWise

Agent Initiatives• Model Licences

– http://www.licensingmodels.com/– Agreed terminology between all

players – Starting point for most negotiations

• Agents as negotiators– NESLI (now non-agent NESLI2)

Agent Initiatives

• ILS and E-Commerce Solutions• EDIFACT & X12

– orders, claims, check-in, financial, & management information.

• B2B business transactions – standards & protocols – integration with e-commerce platforms– ( Ariba and Commerce One etc).

Agent services

• Software services & tools– Serials Management tools

• Think of the ‘traditional’ role of the agent as an intermediary

• Apply that thinking to the electronic field

Agent services

• Look to agent provide support in– License negotiation– Title management – A to Z listing

• Marc record services

– Link resolver services (OpenURL)– Bundle auditing – Cancellation alerts

• Group purchasing brings the opportunity for economies of scale

• Electronic delivery can mean the sharing of resources

• Tendering improves the ‘transparency’ of the process– Providing the tender is framed ‘properly!’

Consortia purchasing:the tender process

The emergence of ‘The Big Deal’

• ‘Bundling’ by publishers locking libraries into multi-year, no cancellation agreements

• Increasing proportion of library budget ‘ring-fenced’

• Increased availability of electronic content

• ‘Off the shelf’ (one size fits all) license• Role of agent?

• (Some) libraries resistance to renewing TBD• Fragmentation of bundles• ‘Bespoke’ (tailored) license• Role of agent?

– Detailed invoices– ILS integration & information (marc records)– Managing ‘bytes’ of information

• Cancellation clauses, title auditing

‘The Big Deal’ (phase two)

The ‘Big Deal’ ?

• “The University of… and other research libraries are holding out, convinced that the Big Deal serves only the big publishers…” Kenneth Frazier – Director of libraries U of Wisconsin. D-Lib magazine March 2001

– http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/frazier/03frazier.html

• “…I was surprised to hear speaker after speaker declare that they thought that the ‘Big Deal’ was unsustainable and likely to go sooner rather than later”

• Comment on the launch of the Ingenta Institute report “The Consortium Site Licence – is it a sustainable model?” September 2002

Who pays?

• Agent (and all intermediaries) need resources to develop and deliver service(s).

• Traditionally the agent’s income derived from a combination of publisher discount and library ‘service’ charge.

• The changes we are witnessing are forcing a revision to this traditional model.

• Cost to organisation of placing an order…

• Cost to organisation of raising/paying an invoice…

• The need for profit– To ensure stability– To invest in new service developments– To deliver quality service

Who pays?

Publisher discounts

• The high value title– Sub price (say) £1000– Publisher discount to agent 10%– Income for agent £100

• The low value title– Sub price (say) £50– Publisher discount to agent (unlikely!) 10%– Income to agent £5

• The importance of the ‘mix’ of titles

• Does it cost the agent (or the library for that matter) any less to process the ‘low value’ title?

• Result is that the high value titles subsidise the low value ones (or the departments that subscribe to the high value titles subsidise the departments that subscribe to the low value titles)

Publisher discounts

• If a library decides to place such high value subscriptions direct with the publisher, then the subsidy is removed.

• The ‘mix’ is disturbed

• The consequence (in the long term) could be higher (agent) charges for libraries for the titles that remain via an agent.

Publisher discounts

Alternative pricing models

• The need for transparency…and to be able to determine ‘value for money’

• Cost plus models– Where the discounted price has an agreed mark-up added

• Low/no discount– Where those titles that do not generate enough revenue

for the agent are marked up to an agreed level prior to terms being applied

In a fragmented world of change

…as the complexity of the industry grows –

- the value the agent/infomediary brings to both the publisher and

the library grows

Agents – meeting the needs of the community

Traditional values still apply

• Financial security• Value for Money• Quality assurance• Stability• Order generation &

checking• Claim generation &

processing

• Publication information

• Invoicing flexibility• Single intermediary• Outsourcing journal

receipt (consolidation)

• Innovative technology partnership

Agents – meeting the needs of the community

Even in the world of ‘E’

• Single access point for e-journals

• Single sign on Athens and Athens DA

• Seamless linking to full text

• Ensuring users can locate resources

• Library Branding of resources

• Integration of resources E-Journals, Databases and Library catalogues

• Licensing• Usage statistics –

Counter compliance

Staying up to date

• Association of Subscription Agents (ASA)http://www.subscription-agents.org

• United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG)http://www.uksg.org

• Lib-licence http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml

• Lis e-journals

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-E-JOURNALS.html

Thank you!

Questions?

Jboyd-reynolds@ebsco.com

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