This week’s weekend Big Deal Long Read is an in-depth analysis of the academic publishing industry, including both research and textbooks/teaching materials. (While not directly relevant to the Big Deal, there is a new urgency in understanding the textbook industry, now that two of the three dominant players are trying to merge.)
The Big Deal has been the subject of quite a few interesting long reads. Periodically I’d like to recommend one such piece for your weekend reading pleasure.
It follows news from mid-March that Unit (Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research) had decided not to renew with Elsevier and had signed a national licensing deal with Wiley.
An exhibition tracing the origins of the University’s as yet unrealized botanical garden—intended by Thomas Jefferson for the slope behind Alderman Library and adjacent Nameless Field—and celebrating the splendid gift of Joel B. Gardner (Col ’70, Law ’74) of the Abbé Correia’s original manuscript plan.
In a remarkable development, France's Couperin consortium negotiated a multi-year deal where the cost goes steadily down each year, reversing the long trend of annual price increases for Big Deals.
Today we are launching 'No Big Deal?', a new feature of UVA Library News that will track the latest events and scholarship about the biggest vendors serving research libraries like ours.
The following open letter has been prepared and released by the Deans and Directors of the seven research libraries at public doctoral institutions in Virginia. It is part of an ongoing conversation with our campus communities about responsible stewardship of our investments in research.