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Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries

Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries Signs Multi-Year Contract with Elsevier

The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries signed a three year contract (2021-2023) with Elsevier for their Freedom Collection.  Elsevier is the largest publisher of STEM materials and is based in the Netherlands with offices in New York City. This contract includes ongoing access to 2,300 journal titles included in their Freedom Collection as well as selected additional titles that are hosted on their platform for Cell Press, Lancet, Clinics of North America, and other society titles.  The contract will provide faculty, staff, and student access to all materials at all 15 of the academic libraries in the Alliance.

Some of the key elements of the deal include:

  • No reduction in access to journal content from the previous contract
  • An overall cost reduction for the contract of approximately $1.5 million (15%) with cost reductions being distributed to members on a pro-rated basis
  • No price increase in year two, and an increase of no more than 2% in year three
  • A cut in post termination access (PTA) to journals starting in 2021 unless a library chooses to re-acquire some or all of them at a later date (at a cost slightly lower than the original cost).
  • No Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
  • Updated provisions for the latest accessibility guidelines
  • A strong financial exigency clause that allows libraries to withdraw mid-contract if local funding is not available without affecting the price to partner libraries

In a separate-but-related contract, the Alliance negotiated resource sharing (interlibrary loan) for whole ebooks.  This is particularly important as academic libraries have moved most of their scholarly monograph purchasing from print to ebooks.  Having traditional resource sharing rights, similar to print books, is crucial to libraries in their historic mission.

Although this new contract does not include transformative open access elements such as reduced-cost article processing charges (APCs), the Alliance remains committed to open access principles and will continue to pursue options for this and other contracts.

The contract took a year to negotiate with excellent input and guidance from the Alliance Elsevier Negotiating Team.

For more information contact

George Machovec, Executive Director, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, george@coalliance.org

Beth Denker, E-Resource Licensing Manger, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, beth@coalliance.org