The Role of the
Intermediary
(Subscription Agent)
Julie Boyd-Reynolds
EBSCO Information Services
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
Topics to be covered
• The changing landscape
• ‘Agent’ Initiatives in the electronic
environment
• ‘The ‘big deal’
• Who pays?
• Meeting the needs of our
communities
© EBSCO
The information chain
Players in the print environment
Author
Publisher
Subscription Agent
Library
Reader
© EBSCO
The information chain
Open Access Model
Author
? Publisher
? Subscription
agent
? Library
Reader
© EBSCO
Serials Supply Chain
Academics &
Researchers
Authors & Readers
Libraries
Abstracting &
Indexing Services
Primary
Publishers
Subscription Agents
Traditional Model of Scholarly Publishing
Circa 1960
© EBSCO
Serials Supply Chain
Academics &
Researchers
Authors & Readers
Libraries
Abstracting &
Indexing Services
Online
Information
Services
Primary
Publishers
Document
Delivery Services
Secondary
Publishers
Print, CD-Rom
Subscription Agents
Traditional Model of Scholarly Publishing
Circa 1980
© EBSCO
Serials Supply Chain
Academics &
Researchers
Authors & Readers
Open Access
Publishers
Document
Delivery Services
Libraries
Library
Purchasing
Consortia
Content
Negotiation
Agents
Online
Information
Services
Publishers Online
Services
Abstracting &
Indexing Services
Primary
Publishers
Secondary Publishers
Publishers
contracted out
Aggregated
Gateways
Print, CD-Rom, Online
Content Aggregators
Subscription Agents
Print and Online
Gateways
New Model of Scholarly Publishing
© EBSCO
The supply chain –
complexity
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Publishers
60,000+
Organisations
?,000
Titles
280,000+
Readers
?000,000
Online Titles
14,000+
© 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
Evaluate
Acquire
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
IP Addresses
Register
Proxy Servers
Acquire
Catalogue
Provide Access
Portals/Access
lists
Campus
authentication
URL
maintenance
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
Acquire
Provide Access
Administer
User IDs
Admin module
information
Preferences
(store)
Holdings lists
Access
restrictions
View rights for
use
Claiming
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
Acquire
Provide Access
Problem log
Provide Support
Administer
Hardware
needs
Software
needs
Contact info
Troubleshoot/
triage
© EBSCO
Electronic resource life cycle
User
feedback
Acquire
Usage stats
Downtime
analysis
Review
problems
Problem log
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
Publishers
Offer trial
Pricing
Marketing/
Sales
Fulfillment
reports
Order
handling
Invoices
Hosting site
Registration
Acquire
IP Addresses
Title lists
Usage stats
Evaluate
Monitor
Campus
authentication
Provide Access
Metasearch/
Z39.50
Subscription
problems
Hardware
problems
Software
problems
Customer
Service
Technical
Support
Provide Support
Durable URL
Support
Administer
User IDs
IP Changes
Subscription
upgrades
Claiming
Title Lists for
packages
Enforce
License terms
Title Changes
© EBSCO
Business Characteristics
of Serials Supply
Print and Electronic Environment
Acquisition
Payment
•New Orders
•Transition
•Renewals
•Cancellations
•Customer Needs
•Publisher Needs
•Licensing
•Access
•Consolidation
•Secure
•In-Advance
•Prompt
•Methods
•Currency
•Invoicing
Awareness
•Alerting/SDI
•Catalogues
•Database
•Specimen Copies
•Quotations
•Inflation Forecasts
Management
•Claims
•Title/Frequency &
•URL Changes
•Management
Information
•Quality Assurance
•Archiving
•Authentication
•Usage Stats
•Price capping
•Bundle analysis
•Cancellations
auditing
Multi Transactional & Low Margins & High Volume
© EBSCO
So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Publishers
60,000+
Organisations
?,000
Titles
280,000+
Readers
?000,000
Online Titles
14,000+
© 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
14,000+
© EBSCO
So Why do ‘Agents’ Exist?
Readers
?000,000
Authors
?00,000
Libraries
?0,000
Organisations
?,000
Publishers
60,000+
Agent
Titles
280,000+
Online Titles
14,000+
© 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
14,000+
© EBSCO
Simplify & Add Value?
• Economies of Scale
• Reduced Overheads through
eased administration.
• Rights Management
• Currency Management
• Outsourcing/consolidation
© EBSCO
Simplify & Add Value?
• Licensing & Authentication
• Awareness/Alerting
• ILS Interfaces
• Abstract & Full-text Databases
• Electronic Linking
• Industry Knowledge & Expertise
© EBSCO
Challenges…
…brought on by changes in the landscape
•
•
•
•
•
Declining budgets
Price increases
New technology
eJournal Management
Linking & OpenURL
•
•
•
•
•
•
Access v Holdings
Outsourcing
ILS integration
Consortia
Distance learning
Open Access
The changing role of Intermediaries in the electronic world
© EBSCO
‘Agent’ Initiatives
Supplying Electronic Information
• Aggregation Services
• Model Licenses
• 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, Extenza, 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
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)
© EBSCO
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).
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
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
© 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!’
© 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’ (phase two)
•
•
•
•
(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
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
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.
© EBSCO
Who pays?
• 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
© 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
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
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
© EBSCO
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
© 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?
Jboyd-reynolds@ebsco.com
© EBSCO