The Role of the
Subscription Agent
Lynn Coulton – EBSCO
© EBSCO
Topics to be covered
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The Information chain
The Supply chain and its characteristics
Serial supply ‘life cycle’
Electronic serial ‘life cycle’
Why agents/intermediaries exist
The changing landscape
‘Agent’ Initiatives in the electronic
environment
• Who pays?
• Meeting the needs of the community
© EBSCO
The information chain
Author
Publisher
Subscription Agent
Library
Reader
© EBSCO
The information chain
 Author
? Publisher
? Subscription
agent
 Reader
? Library
Open Access Model?
© EBSCO
The supply chain
THE TRADITIONAL MODEL OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING
ACADEMICS AND RESEARCHERS
Authors & Readers
PRIMARY
PUBLISHERS
Libraries
SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS
© EBSCO
The supply chain
THE 1980/90's MODEL OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING
ACADEMICS AND RESEARCHERS
Authors & Readers
ABSTRACTING &
INDEXING SERVICES
DOCUMENT DELIVERY
SERVICES
PRIMARY
PUBLISHERS
Libraries
SECONDARY PUBLISHERS
Print, CD-ROM & Online
ONLINE INFORMATION
SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS
© EBSCO
The supply chain
THE 'NEW' MODEL OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING
ACADEMICS AND RESEARCHERS
Authors & Readers
ABSTRAC TING & INDEXING
SERVIC ES
PUBLISHERS' ONLINE
SERVICES
Outsourced hosting
services
DOCUMENT DELIVERY SERVICES
PRIMARY
PUBLISHERS
Libraries
Libraries
Library
portals & Libraries
VLE's
LIBRARY
PURCHASING
CONSORTIA
LIBRARY UTILITIES
Content aggregators
PUBLISHERS'
COOPERATIVE
SERVICES
Libraries
Libraries
Full-text aggregators / collections &
subject specific databases
ONLINE INFORMATION
SERVICES
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
ORGANISATIONS
Electronic resource
management services
(ERM)
SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS /
Information Intermediaries
Data providers
© EBSCO
The supply chain –
complexity
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Publishers
60,000+
Organisations
?,000
Titles
280,000+
Readers
?000,000
Online Titles
25,000+
© EBSCO
Serials resource life cycle
Renewal
criteria/decisio
n
Management
Information
Missing
issues/no
service
Select &
Evaluate
options
Order &
pay
The
Subscription
agent as
intermediary
Bibliographic
changes
Ensure
delivered
Catalogue
records
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
Acquire
Evaluate
Monitor
Provide Support
Provide Access
Administer
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
License
terms
Trial use
Order
Price
Assess
need/budget
Pay
IP Addresses
Evaluate
Register
User
feedback
Proxy Servers
Acquire
Catalogue
Usage stats
Downtime
analysis
Review
problems
Evaluate
Monitor
Problem log
Hardware
needs
Software
needs
Contact info
Troubleshoot/
triage
Provide Support
Portals/Access
lists
Campus
authentication
URL
maintenance
Provide Access
Administer
User IDs
Admin module
information
Preferences
(store)
Holdings lists
Access
restrictions
View rights for
use
Claiming
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
License
terms
Trial use
Order
Price
Assess
need/budget
Pay
Evaluate
IP Addresses
Register
User
feedback
Proxy Servers
Acquire
Catalogue
Usage stats
Downtime
analysis
Review
problems
Evaluate
Monitor
Problem log
Provide Support
Hardware
needs
Software
needs
Contact info
Troubleshoot/
triage
New processes introduced
Provide Access
Portals/Acces
s lists
Campus
authentication
URL
maintenance
Administer
User IDs
Admin module
information
Preferences
(store)
Holdings lists
Access
restrictions
View rights for Claiming
use
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
License
terms
Trial use
Order
Price
Assess
need/budget
Pay
Evaluate
IP Addresses
Register
User
feedback
Proxy Servers
Acquire
Catalogue
Usage stats
Downtime
analysis
Review
problems
Evaluate
Monitor
Problem log
Hardware
needs
Software
needs
Contact info
Troubleshoot/
triage
Publishers
Provide Support
Provide Access
Portals/Acces
s lists
Campus
authentication
URL
maintenance
Administer
User IDs
Admin module
information
Preferences
(store)
Holdings lists
Access
restrictions
View rights for Claiming
use
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
License
terms
Trial use
Price
Assess
need/budget
User
feedback
Usage stats
Downtime
analysis
Review
problems
Evaluate
IP Addresses
Register
Proxy Servers
Catalogue
Evaluate
Monitor
Hardware
needs
Software
needs
Contact info
Troubleshoot
The Library
Pay
Acquire
Problem log
The Agent
Order
Provide Support
Portals/Access
lists
Campus
authentication
URL
maintenance
Provide Access
Administer
User IDs
Admin module
information
Preferences
(store)
Holdings lists
Access
restrictions
View rights for
use
Claiming
© EBSCO
So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?
Readers
?000,000
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Publishers
60,000+
Organisations
?,000
Titles
280,000+
Online Titles
25,000+
© EBSCO
So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?
Readers
?000,000
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Organisations
?,000
Publishers
60,000+
Agent
Online Titles
24,000+
Titles
280,000+
© EBSCO
So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?
Readers
?000,000
Libraries
?0,000
Representing
thousands of
libraries
to
Organisations
the ?,000
publishers
Authors
?00,000
Simplify
Agent
Publishers
60,000+
Representing
thousands of
publishers
Titles to
the
libraries
280,000+
Add value
Online Titles
24,000+
© EBSCO
Simplify & Add Value?
• Economies of Scale
• Reduced Overheads through eased
administration.
• Rights Management
• Currency Management
• Outsourcing/consolidation
• Licensing & Authentication
• Awareness/Alerting
• ILS Interfaces
• Standards / interoperability
• Abstract & Full-text Databases
• Electronic Linking
• Industry Knowledge & Expertise
© EBSCO
Challenges…
…brought on by changes in serials supply
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Declining budgets
Price increases
VAT
New technology
eJournal Management
Linking & Open URL
Authentication
– ATHENS : Shibboleth
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Access v Holdings
Outsourcing
ILS integration
Consortia
Remote access
Usage statistics
– COUNTER : SUSHI
• Federated searching
The changing role of Intermediaries in the electronic world
© EBSCO
‘Agent’ Initiatives in the Supply of
Electronic Serials Content
• Aggregation Services
• Agents as negotiators
• EDI & E-commerce
• ‘Software’ services & tools
© EBSCO
‘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
© EBSCO
‘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, Atypon, Highwire &
Ingenta
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
Agents as Negotiators
• NESLI
(now replaced by non agent NESLi2)
• EBSCO & California State
University (Journal Access Core
Collection)
• Corporate (global) licenses
© EBSCO
EDI & E-commerce
• EDIFACT & X12
– orders, claims, check-in, financial, & management
information.
(More and more likely in Academic Institutions
following Gershan)
• B2B business transactions
– standards & protocols
– integration with e-commerce platforms
– ( Ariba, SAP, Oracle and Commerce One etc).
• ‘Desktop’ (devolved) procurement
• Pay per View
© EBSCO
Software services & tools
• Think of the ‘traditional’ role of the
agent as an intermediary
• Apply that thinking to the electronic
field
• Look to agent provide support in
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License negotiation
Title management – A to Z listing
Link resolver services (Open URL)
Federated searching
Electronic Books as “content”
© EBSCO
The Current ‘Landscape’
• Familiar occupants – traditional territory
– Publishers, libraries, agents, LMS vendors,
Booksellers
• New, unfamiliar, parts of the landscape
– Managing tasks associated with acquisition
& delivery of electronic resources (journals /
databases / eBooks)
• Electronic Resource Management
modules
– No familiar occupants – where to turn?
• Whatever the ‘container’, the content
remains vital
© EBSCO
So who pays?
• Agent (and all intermediaries) need resources
to develop and deliver service(s).
• The need for profit
– To ensure stability
– To invest in new service developments
– To deliver quality service
• 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.
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
Publisher discounts
• 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)
© EBSCO
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.
© EBSCO
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 (% or flat figure)
© EBSCO
Consortia purchasing:
the tender process
• 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!’
– E.g. ‘named contact’
© EBSCO
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?
© EBSCO
The ‘Big Deal’ ?
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“… convinced that the Big Deal serves only the big publishers.
Many other university and college libraries are also investigating their options,
recognising – as we all do – that the push to build an all-electronic
collection can’t be undertaken at the risk of; 1)weakening that collection
with titles we neither need or want, and 2) increasing our dependence on
publishers who have already shown their determination to monopolise the
information marketplace.”
Kenneth Frazier – Director of libraries U of Wisconsin. D-Lib magazine March 2001
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http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/frazier/03frazier.html
http://www.dlib.org//dlib/april01/04letters.html
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Followed up by:
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An Orderly retreat from the Big Deal – is it possible for Consortia
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(the letters responses were interesting too!)
Jeffrey N Gatten & Tom Sanville – D-Lib magazine October 2004
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october04/gatten/10gatten.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 launce of the Ingenta Institute report “The Consortium Site
Licence – is it a sustainable model?” September 2002
© EBSCO
‘The Big Deal’ (phase two)
• (Some) libraries resistance to
renewing TBD
• Fragmentation of bundles
• ‘Bespoke’ (tailored) license
• Role of agent?
– Detailed invoices
– ILS integration & information
© EBSCO
In a fragmented world of
change
…as the complexity of the
industry grows –
- the value the
agent/intermediary brings to
both the publisher and the library
grows
© EBSCO
Meeting the needs of the community
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Single point of access for e-journals
Single authentication per user
session – Athens and Shibboleth
Linking to fulltext
Ensuring user can locate the
resource
Integration of e-journals, databases
and opac
Single intermediary
library/publisher
Licensing
Customisable access profiles
Library ‘branding’
Publication information
Usage statistics
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Financial security
Value for money
Quality assurance
Stability
Order generation & checking
Claim generation & processing
‘named’ contact for customer
service
Management reporting
Outsourcing and processing
services (consolidation)
Innovative technology partnership
Invoice flexibility
Validated links
Standards / interoperability
© EBSCO
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.sh
tml
• Lis e-journals
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-EJOURNALS.html
© EBSCO
Thank you!
Questions?
lcoulton@ebsco.com
© EBSCO