Beyond the Big Deal

During my previous collection development class at UIUC, we discussed the “Big Deal” and bundling. However, I learned more about the Big Deal this time when we read about it in light of “disruptive innovations”- electronic databases, e-books, and interlibrary loans. I read the Carlson and Pope and Colleen Cleary articles first and began to think about disruptive innovation and change immediately. When I read Covi and Cragin’s article next, it hit me full-force.

To me, the Big Deal sounds like a mixed blessing. Price increases for serials have placed significant demands on academic libraries’ budgets and bargaining power is not even for libraries. However, bundling allows libraries increased access to certain information, as Cleary points out. Small- to medium-sized libraries could benefit from bundling by purchasing a number of titles they couldn’t afford to buy individually. I think the most significant development here is the rise of patron-driven collections with interlibrary loans and e-books. Many electronic journals cost less than print materials (cost increases are at the heart of the problem with the Big Deal). I was surprised how print serials are competing with e-books in budgets.

After reading these articles, I changed my thinking about open access (OA) journals. I wasn’t so sure about OA following last week’s readings. I agree with authors like Carlson and Pope that OA could be an alternative to spiraling journal costs. When libraries can’t afford to subscribe to all the journals they need from publishers or when many journals are unavailable by subscription, OA seems like a good alternative. Carlson and Pope point out that many OA journals are peer-reviewed and indexed in respected databases. I’m not advocating a “one size fits all” approach here, but I think OA is something for libraries to seriously think about.

TS