Developing ICOLC guidelines, statements and endorsements

Abstract(s)

Increasingly, today's publishers act globally to provide electronic information, and it is incumbent upon libraries to act globally to express their market positions about pricing and other terms and conditions related to purchase of published information. This document updates the ICOLC's earlier statements about today's electronic information environment, our desired environment for the future, and preferred practices for library consortia and their member libraries to achieve these desired outcomes. In this general update, we emphasize economic and pricing matters, which have remained a significant concern since the first meetings of the ICOLC in 1996 and throughout the Statements we have issued. Once again, although this Statement may have general applicability, the adopters expect that its primary relevance will be within the higher education community. We aim to foster a continuing dialog among information providers and academic library consortia. Thus, members of ICOLC invite information providers to engage in meaningful and practical discussions about how this document and its predecessors might advance ubiquitous and affordable information resources for library users in educational and research institutions. Although the Statement intends to be broad enough to encompass all types of academic consortia and to set general boundaries within which consortia usually operate, it is not intended to preclude individual consortia from taking specific actions that may be appropriate to their own needs.