Negotiating big deals: ACRL/SPARC Forum at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting

At the ACRL/SPARC Forum at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, three panelists discussed efforts to negotiate with vendors regarding “Big Deal” journal packages, including strategies and information that make such negotiations more effective for libraries. The three panelists provide their remarks below. Gale Etschmaier recounts negotiations between the Florida State University Libraries and Elsevier that led to the successful cancellation of their Elsevier “Big Deal.” Robin Sinn summarizes open access efforts at the Johns Hopkins University Libraries. And, finally, Jason Priem discusses his company’s product Unsub, a “data dashboard that helps libraries forecast, explore, and optimize their alternatives to the Big Deal, so they can unsubscribe with confidence.”