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RLI 282 (PRE-PUBLICATION VERSION) 1 
   
   The State of Large-Publisher Bundles in 2012 
   Karla L. Strieb,1 Associate Director for Collections, Technical Services and Scholarly Communications, Ohio State University Libraries Julia C. Blixrud, Assistant Executive Director, Scholarly Communication, Association of Research Libraries A Decade of Experience with Journal Bundles For well over a decade, research libraries have been spending millions of dollars per year licensing collections of journals published by just a handful of publishers. Ten years ago ARL surveyed its membership about their licensed collections of journal titles. In 2002, ARL asked for information regarding members’ expenditures for 60 journal publishers, ultimately reporting findings for the 7 most commonly subscribed publishers. In 2003, a second survey added further information about some licensing terms.2 ARL surveyed its members again in 2005 about their 2006 licenses with the 6 largest publishers at that time.3 Early in the summer of 2012, ARL again surveyed its member libraries about their subscriptions to journal collections from large publishers.4 The data collected in this most recent survey show that a great deal has changed in the last decade, and yet several issues remain concerns within the library community. Pricing models and license terms, consortial arrangements, and the conversion from print to electronic subscriptions remain issues across the surveys. Interest in research library subscriptions to large-publisher bundles persists for several reasons. Perhaps the primary reason is that, for more than a decade, a small group of publishers account for a disproportionate amount of libraries’ materials expenditures. Although it is difficult or perhaps impossible to gather accurate, comparable data on the prices libraries are paying for the largest publishers’ journals, there is no question that these are the most expensive purchases research libraries are making with their materials dollars. How libraries can manage these expenditures, and how much value they receive for them, is mediated by the terms of the licenses that define these cornerstone purchases. License terms have been an issue of discussion within the research library community since the beginning of e-journal production. Initially, identifying key issues for negotiation was a primary focus. More recently, concern about the frequency and effect of nondisclosure clauses has generated community debate. New discussion threads have arisen around license terms that may be of particular interest to research libraries, such as text-mining rights, the ability to SPRING 2013 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A QUARTERLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC