Six members of the Virginia Research Libraries (VRL) recently completed contract negotiations with Elsevier, the largest publisher of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) scholarly journals.
OER News & Updates
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Article, January 19, 2021 -
Article, November 16, 2020In October deans from seven Virginia research libraries discussed their guiding principles ahead of upcoming, joint contract negotiations with Elsevier, a major publisher of academic journals.
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Article, September 3, 2020Public academic research library deans from across the commonwealth will speak to faculty members, staff, and librarians about issues related to bundled journal packages, including concerns with the cost, equity and sustainability of these packages.
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Article, April 27, 2020William & Mary Libraries has launched a Textbook Affordability Initiative on campus to address the rising costs of textbooks. The effort is managed by a task force of librarians, faculty, staff and students.
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Article, October 25, 2019As we work together in Virginia to forge a more sustainable, equitable approach to journal deals, the Framework is a powerful statement around which research libraries in the US and abroad can align.
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Blog Post, September 5, 2019National surveys indicate that students are now spending about $1200 each year if they purchase all of the textbooks required for their classes. The increase in textbook prices has far outpaced the increase in inflation, nearly doubling from 1998-2008 alone, and going up over 1,000% since 1977.
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Article, April 11, 2019The following open letter has been prepared and released by the deans and directors of the seven research libraries at public doctoral institutions in Virginia.
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Blog Post, April 2, 2019On February 28, 2019, the University of California System announced the end of its relationship with publishing giant Elsevier, when a deal between the two could not be met despite months of negotiation.
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Article, December 11, 2018Interested in textbook affordability for students? Virginia’s academic library consortium, VIVA, is funding grants up to $30,000 for adopting, adapting or creating openly-licensed textbooks or course materials.
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Blog Post, December 4, 2018The collections budget of the university libraries is subject to enormous inflationary pressures for scholarly content. This issue is of supreme importance to universities around the globe, with libraries in many countries working on strategies to provide greater access to information without monopolizing their entire budgets on a small number of for-profit journal publishers. This year, we have worked with other universities in the state to analyze our own journal subscriptions, particularly those subscriptions which we have with the top academic publishers in the world.