[Eril-l] [External] Re: Online Exclusive Content v. Aggregator Content

Mon Oct 28 07:59:40 PDT 2024

We are preparing to subscribe to our first of such web and app-based popular newspapers for the campus due to pressure from other campus entities. It seems that some departments/schools are basing semester-long projects on access to this content. At the same time, the campus is getting more pressure to decrease the costs of course materials for the students. Thus, a campus-wide subscription managed by the library makes the most sense. Luckily, for the library, those same campus entities are willing to share the cost with the library.

I'll also say, the cost per student for this particular major newspaper was much less than the first time we got a quote pre-2020.

Up to this time, the library had resisted supporting this type of subscription because we have so much of the content in our databases, but I'll echo what Seth said. The multi-media content, the ads, and the "games" were the reasons given to us as to why the full access subscriptions were needed.

All the best,

Christina Torbert
Head of Continuing Resources and Acquisitions
Liaison to departments of Philosophy, Religion, and Gender Studies
J.D. Williams Library
University of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677
662-915-7059 (o)
Pronouns: she/her

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Subject: Re: [Eril-l] [External] Re: Online Exclusive Content v. Aggregator Content

[EXTERNAL]

I don't know how comprehensive it is, but our NewsBank subscription includes the text of online-exclusive articles from major newspapers (not magazines like the Atlantic, though).  That's caused some confusion however because the content tends to be divvied up 3-4 in knowledge bases: there are links/catalog records for the daily newspaper content (i.e. what's printed for the traditional newsstands), for the online-exclusive content, for the weekend edition content, etc).  The division makes sense from a cataloging perspective, but it can seem convoluted for researchers and general readers.  But perhaps they can be compared somehow?

The #1 reason I've been asked about subscribing directly to a news provider is access to photos, graphs, and interactive data visualizations.  Those are elements we can't get through an aggregator, and some newspapers have increasingly used them to enhance or anchor their articles.  As the content becomes more visual, the text-only articles at Nexis Uni or NewsBank can seem insufficient to some.  But at the same time, the demand for that specific content isn't so high that the costly subscriptions seem justified.

--Seth

Seth W. Sisler (he/him)
Head of Acquisitions & Collections Services
Ohio University Libraries
Athens, OH 45701
(740) 593-2694
sislers at ohio.edu<mailto:sislers at ohio.edu>
https://www.ohio.edu/library

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Subject: [External] Re: [Eril-l] Online Exclusive Content v. Aggregator Content

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I did not see any responses to this, so thought I'd throw in my two cents on this topic.   We also are receiving "pressure" both from the vendors (most recently Atlantic) and faculty (trying to get to exclusive web content). ILL staff are also frustrated when they cannot fulfill requests for these articles.  For what it's worth, we are saying "no" to starting these subscriptions, particularly where there is large overlap with our other access for that publication.   We communicate our reasons to our faculty, and I tell the vendor reps our reasons as well:

We tell faculty the annual cost of a "web subscription" (thousands of dollars) and that it would gain access to very little content we don't already have

In some cases we had previously purchased and own the online archive/backfile, so that being 'thrown in' by the publisher is not a benefit for us.

We often already have access to formally packaged 'issues', including the latest packaged issue, in full-text databases (e.g., EBSCO databases).

We additionally often have access to much of the content through Nexis Uni.

I realize that these news publications are struggling, and they do good work, but our library cannot pay repeatedly for large amounts of overlapping content on different platforms.  And the quotes we are getting for web access at around $5,000/year for EACH of these newspapers/news magazine site licenses is not something we can afford.

Maybe if enough libraries say "no" and tell the vendor reps why, they will figure out some alternatives that might be mutually beneficial - e.g., a much lower subscription rate if library also has large content overlap through other means (owned or subscribed), or we might be willing to pay a reasonable amount for individual purchase of "exclusive" online articles to supply through ILL to our patrons.

Best, Theresa

Theresa Arndt
Dickinson College Library
arndtt at dickinson.edu<mailto:arndtt at dickinson.edu>
she/her/hers

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Subject: [Eril-l] Online Exclusive Content v. Aggregator Content

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Hi everyone,

Does anyone know how to ascertain how much content from popular source magazines and news is not getting pushed to aggregators? For example, we have felt pressure to purchase site licenses to newspapers and popular source magazines like The Atlantic because there is a lot of "online exclusive" content that is not being pushed to aggregated databases that support content from that publisher. I'm just curious to know if there is a way to determine how much content is now considered "online exclusive" and not covered by our aggregator subscriptions. I'd also be interested to hear about any of your anecdotal experiences with this as well!

Thanks!
Britt

Brittany Mountford

Make an Appointment<https://belmont.libcal.com/appointments/bmountford>
Electronic Resources Librarian
Lila D. Bunch Library
Phone: 615.460.8905
Email: brittany.mountford at belmont.edu<mailto:brittany.mountford at belmont.edu>

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Belmont University
Nashville, TN
www.belmont.edu<https://www.belmont.edu/>
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