NEWS
Customers act after shock decision to change model
SOME librarians are weighing their options while others have already taken action to reduce the impact of Clarivate’s shock decision to change its business model. In February the company, which sells content produced by over 10,000 pub- lishers to libraries across the world, said it was terminating the supply of physical books and changing its business model from selling eBooks to renting them.
Uncertainty remains The library sector voiced grave concerns about the announcement. SCONUL for example said: “These proposals have been introduced at very short notice creating
institutions at operational level, includ- ingwithworkflowsandstaffing.” Clarivate apologised and relaxed the deadlines saying: “We recognise that the absence of community consulta- tion created frustration, during already challenging times for libraries and higher education. We sincerely apol- ogise for this and are committed to learning from this moment and doing better.”
Andrew Barker, Library Director at Lancaster University said Clarivate had not even engaged its own advisory board (of which he is a member) to dis- cuss the changes in advance. He said: “I think there remains uncertainty as they have revisitedwhat firstwas saidand changed the dates – there is uncertainty as to whether there might be more changes as this fundamental shift was announced without warning – if it can be done once, it can be done again – and thatisalossoftrustwhichisverydiffi- cult,ifnotimpossible,toregain.”
Money and work
In line with many others in the sector Andrew said that more annual subscrip- tion payments were not welcome but said the immediate practical implica- tions were huge: “The move away from print books, demand driven acquisition (DDA) and associated workflows of these will have the greatest impact, as
8 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
well as needing to ensure we can repur- pose workflows for another vendor. In essencetheremovingofourflexibilityat a time when we are needing to increase flexibility–becauseofaneedtoreduce expenditure – will have a massive and detrimental impact. The whole point of using one vendor for everything was to simplify – tools were sold on that basis, so it is deeply unsettling to have that now undermined.” He added that Lancaster uses Clarivate’s
very significant problems for
Library Management System Alma – as does 60 per cent of the HE sector – but now has “one less reason to remain an Almacustomerinthelong-term”. Matt Cox, head of content delivery and discovery at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and a committee member of the National Acquisitions Group, said ARU had circa 80 per cent of all book acqui- sitions via Clarivate products but had shifted completely to two alternative sup- pliers. “It was frustrating having to make these changes... I lost the trust, which is whyImovedimmediatelytoshiftaway.” (
https://tinyurl.com/clarivatebypass)
House of Commons Othersectorsarealsoaffected.TheHouse of Commons Library uses Clarivate and Martin Reid, Director of Library Services, Research & Information, said: “Ebooks are an important resource for us and we were planning to significantly develop our offering usingDDAand as well as exploring access to own as an approach. But the changes Clarivate have an- nounced mean we will have to reevaluate that strategy. As with other libraries, our key considerations are content and cost and how best to provide the titles our user want within the budget we have. So we will be looking at other suppliers and modelsbeforedecidinghowtoproceed.”
Counterparty risk
Pricing and license complexity com- mands much librarian attention (see p.12) and the risk posed by dependence on platforms can be overlooked. But over-stretched librarians need to mon- itor changes in supplier circumstances
– like Clarivate’s share price falling from $33 to $3 – and their potential impli- cations.
Gavin Philips, Category Manager, at SUPC, said: “Yes, librarians should keep an eyeonfinancialstabilityofsuppliersbutif all librarians or procurement profes- sionals did this it would duplicate huge amounts of effortacrossthe sector, in- cluding for suppliers, potentially adding costorputtingoffsmallersuppliers…I monitorfinancialstabilityofframework suppliers all the time. If I see potential risk or just a significant change then I follow up to establish the actual context and decide if members need to be aware (Idon’twanttoscaremonger!)”Hesaid SUPC’s new book and ebook framework will include a tool that provides mem- bers with some support on this issue.
Clarivate response
Clarivate said it had engaged with cus- tomers and users and acted on their feedback saying: “We have entered into an agreement (
https://tinyurl.com/Ebookcentrala- greement) with Portico to provide third-party preservation for the books available to academic libraries through Ebook Cen- tral, and we are launching a librarian engagement group to provide strategic guidance into the development of our sub- scriptions, helping ensure they reflect wide-ranging academic needs. We are committed to continuing to work with ourpartnersforthefutureoflibraries.”
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... a loss of trust which is very difficult, if not impossible, to regain. – Andrew Barker
Summer 2025
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