Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Monday, February 23, 2004

Cutbacks on Elsevier titles at the University of Maryland

As the result of unsatisfactory negotiations with Elsevier, the University of Maryland is giving up consortial access to the Baltimore campus subscriptions and converting the College Park campus subscriptions to electronic-only. The changes were announced in February 20 memo to faculty from William Destler, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Excerpt: "The Libraries have articulated two objectives in working with publishers: [1] to maintain and exercise control over library collecting decisions in order to meet the constantly evolving information needs of faculty, researchers, and students; and [2] to manage overall costs in a way that guarantees that no single publisher is exempted from the regular critical review, which ensures that all subscriptions provide reasonable value in relation to their budget impact. Elsevier's final offer...failed to meet either criterion."