Cornell University Library

Citation

(2004), "Cornell University Library", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 32 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2004.12232bab.012

Cornell University Library

Cornell University Library

An historic turning point in the conflict between libraries and publishers? (Ed.)

In November 2003, after several months of negotiations, Cornell University Library (CUL) announced its decision not to renew its subscription with publisher Reed Elsevier for a bundled package of more than 900 journals. ...The library made the decision to move from Elsevier's bundled plan, in which charges for electronic access to the journals are lower but no cancellation is allowed, to a plan that permits purchasing of Elsevier journals on a title-by-title basis. Library administrators have said that CUL could no longer justify paying an increasing price each year for Elsevier's bundle of serials when a significant number of titles in the package received hardly any use at Cornell. In 2003, CUL's Elsevier subscription included 930 online and print journals–primarily science publications. Although these titles represent less than 2 percent of the total number of serials to which Cornell subscribes, the $1.7 million contract with Elsevier for the bundle amounted to more than 20 percent of the library's journal subscription expenditures.

There is much more on the Cornell Library Web site at: www.library.cornell.edu/scholarlycomm/index.html and is well worth a look (Ed.)