EBSCO Releases Serials Price Projections for 2012

Birmingham, Ala. — Sept. 16, 2011 — Each year, EBSCO strives to help customers plan by projecting publisher price increases for the upcoming year. We use recent information received from both large and small publishers as well as historical price data to calculate these projections. While based upon careful analysis, we recommend that subscribers exercise caution when using these projections, as they rely on historical trends and current estimates.

2012 Price Projections

At the time of writing, we expect the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic/medical libraries for 2012 (before currency impact) to be in the range of 4 to 6 percent.

Commentary

Since the last publication of this report a year ago, the global economic environment has remained challenged, and our projections indicate 2012 publisher price increases consistent with last year in the mid single digits. Underneath this veneer of consistency, however, much change is afoot in the information industry for both publishers and librarians. These emerging trends are a response to the seemingly permanent economic challenges faced by librarians and publishers as well as the result of new and innovative technologies.

On the library side, budgets remain under extreme pressure, with over 30 percent of librarians forecasting budget decreases of more than 5 percent in a recent EBSCO survey. While recent publisher price increases have trended in the mid single digits, any price increases at all in the current budget environment clearly present difficult purchasing decisions for librarians. To date, librarians have implemented a variety of tactics to bridge the growing budget gap: elimination of print and print-plus-online formats in favor of electronic-only content, cancelling e-package “Big Deals” that consume a large part of their content budgets, and reducing overall staffing and service levels. While these tactics have been effective in many cases, librarians are increasingly being forced to consider even more fundamental changes to their purchasing and operating strategies given the accelerating funding pressures. For example, with regard to collection development, librarians are now taking usage analysis more and more into account when making decisions on what to renew and what to cut. This type of analysis is becoming easier to undertake given the new usage products being developed by EBSCO and other companies in the information industry. With these tools, librarians will be able to understand very precisely what content is absolutely critical and what content may be expendable given the dire budget situation. Ultimately, librarians will use this knowledge to reduce the overall cost of content to match budget reductions while still maintaining the most impactful content for their patrons.

Of course, with this level of usage transparency, analysis, and scrutiny, content quality will be the key factor. This could put further pressure on the “Big Deal” e-package models. For instance, it seems likely that those publishers with the best content in each discipline will still be able to command pricing power for their top journals. However, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to bundle their second- and third-tier journals with their top-tier journals in order to preserve revenue. What does seem clear is that those publishers lacking top-quality content will most likely be in a difficult spot from a pricing and revenue growth perspective, and this may lead to further consolidation in the publishing industry.

Serials Price Projection Report 2012

About EBSCO
Established in 1944, EBSCO is the world’s leading information agent providing consultative services and cutting-edge technology for managing and accessing quality content, including print and e-journals, e-packages, research databases, eBooks and more. Now more than ever libraries and research organizations are looking for new ways to manage their collections more efficiently. EBSCO has developed the most comprehensive “e” discovery and management solutions, offering unparalleled integration to help librarians save time and money while empowering their users.

EBSCO serves clients in more than 200 countries through our 30 offices worldwide with more than 140 librarians on staff. To learn more about EBSCO’s products and services, visit www.ebsco.com.

For more information, please contact:
Rossi Morris
Media Relations Coordinator
EBSCO Corporate Communications
www.twitter.com/EBSCOInfoSvcs
rmorris@ebsco.com
205.980.3885

Farmington Hills, Mich., September 15, 2011 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced major enhancements to Career Transitions, its online career service tool. The features include a new user interface, reporting tools for gauging user activity and additional job-seeking and career exploration activities. These enhancements allow for easier and faster user access and career assessment, and were implemented based on extensive customer and user feedback.

“In these difficult economic times, more and more citizens are looking for efficient tools to help them find work,” said Gerry Sawchuk, publisher, public library solutions, Gale. “With these enhancements to Career Transitions, job and career seekers will be able to improve their chances of finding sustainable employment.”

In addition to the new interface, the following features were added to Career Transitions:
• Interactive Interview Practice: A custom interview simulation to help users get over interview intimidation and prepare in a safe and non-judgmental environment. In addition, users will find targeted tips and advice in the form of articles and videos on job searching and applying to networking and career strategies, among other topics.
• Match Experience to New Careers: This unique feature enables users to identify a job or military occupation they’ve held, and explore related new career opportunities based on their experience. Match Experience helps users translate their experience into new opportunities they may not have considered.
• Trends, Activities, Outcomes & Reporting: Provides detailed insight into the activities users are engaged in and what they are accomplishing. Helps librarians deliver measurable results to their institution, community and funding partners with:
- Visual, easy-to-generate reports detailing what users are accomplishing
- Optional user survey mechanism to identify transformative value (jobs, progress) and success

The new activities reporting feature added to Career Transitions will give librarians access to useful information and metrics that will demonstrate the success of their job and career resources in a visual, detailed report. Reports can be generated at any time, and cover every activity – including job searching and tracking, resumes, cover letters, assessments and more – that users can experience within Career Transitions. Librarians can also gather valuable user data on career search trends, such as ranked information on the top careers users are targeting and what specific advice they are seeking.

“Public libraries are prime destinations for career research, yet they are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their value to the community and provide quantifiable metrics and results to maintain their funding,” said Sawchuk. “This new reporting tool will allow libraries to instantaneously collect valuable data that can be used in many ways, including demonstrating success to legislatures and budget holders.”

Other additions to Career Transitions include updates for more than 1,100 careers; 1,000 videos including “Day in the Life” interviews with people in different fields; spotlights on new and emerging careers, as well as green careers; a career ladder that positions similar opportunities according to education/training level; and an education/training finder to match careers with education and training programs from nearly 9,000 postsecondary institutions across the U.S. and more than 300 online continuing education courses. In addition, the guided resume and cover letter creator helps users who are often intimidated to start this process find a quick and efficient path to presenting their background and abilities in the best light. It guides users step-by-step through each section of creating a resume and cover letter.

These new features have been added to Career Transitions at no additional cost to customers. For more information, visit http://www.gale.cengage.com/careertransitions/. To speak with a Gale publisher or to set up a trial of Career Transitions, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.com.

###