Since the late 1990s, large publishers have marketed contracts for bundled access to their entire journal lists (a.k.a “Big Deals”) to research libraries. Over time publisher price increases have far exceeded the growth of library budgets, and ever-increasing percentages of collection budgets are now consumed by these inflexible contracts.

These all-or-nothing deals have received additional attention recently due to the University of California’s decision not to renew its subscription with Elsevier, the biggest of the Big Deal publishers. Big Deals are financially unsustainable and have led numerous academic libraries around the world to reappraise their subscriptions and consider more flexible and strategic options for spending collection resources to meet the diverse needs of researchers and students.

The issue is a concern for all of us in the UW Community. The UW Libraries supports UC’s and other research libraries’ efforts to explore new and different models for providing access to scholarship. We recently shared our thoughts on how our collective values inform our strategic planning as we consider the changing landscape of scholarly communication and our future negotiations with publishers.

On May 16, the UW Faculty Senate voted unanimously to approve a Class C Resolution expressing its support for the UW Libraries Licensing Principles and bargaining priorities in upcoming journal package negotiations with major journal publishers. The legislation, sponsored by the Faculty Council on University Libraries, endorses the Libraries’ negotiation and licensing priorities and voices support for:

Bringing down subscription costs and increases to a sustainable level that will not imperil other collection and service needs

Ending non-disclosure agreements to allow the Libraries to disclose their contractual terms and permit greater market transparency

Allowing interlibrary loan to facilitate resource sharing

Protecting the rights of users to share articles with students and colleagues

Ensuring the privacy and data security of all users

Protecting the ability of students and researchers to continue to access journals and articles

Supporting the University’s Open Access policies by allowing re-use and embargo-free deposit rights and protecting researchers’ copyright in their own research

Enabling greater market flexibility and responsiveness by negotiating contracts on a 3-year basis

Providing equitable service and access to information for all our library users

We are grateful to our faculty colleagues for their support and look forward to continuing working with them on these important issues.