Penguin and Random House in merger talks

From today's Guardian newspaper:

Penguin and Random House in merger talks

Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials

No surprise here:
Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials

Open Access Week

It's Open Access Week! Here's what's happening at the University of Alberta Libraries:
http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/content.php?pid=45302&sid=3117074

Adam Matthew acquired by SAGE

This is the news release from SAGE that has been sent out to libraries today:

As a valued customer of Adam Matthew we wanted to give you someexciting news before the official announcement is released tomorrow(Thursday 11th October).

During our work this year with SAGE (www.sagepub.com) it has become
clear that our two businesses share the same core values andapproaches to quality publishing. As a result of these fundamentalalignments, and the ambitious plans for both companies, Adam Matthewis now a part of the SAGE Group:
SAGE has acquired Adam Matthew Digital and Adam Matthew Education. Theacquisition was concluded on 5th October, 2012, but remains strictlyconfidential until a public announcement is made tomorrow (11th Oct,2012).

There will be no changes to the Adam Matthew team or structure. The
business will continue to operate from its offices in Marlborough,Wiltshire and Chicago, IL under its existing management team who willcontinue to maintain all existing customer relationships.

Adam Matthew’s product fit, and the strongly aligned brand values with
SAGE, make this an exciting opportunity for the next phase in AdamMatthew’s development.

Both SAGE and Adam Matthew strongly believe in high quality products
and editorial integrity. With the agreement that Adam Matthew willcontinue to operate independently, but with the backing of SAGE, theapproach to creative, high value product development that has definedboth companies will be strengthened further.

All existing contracts will remain between Adam Matthew and its
partners, not transferred to SAGE. Please see this link:<http://bit.ly/UDhcvp> for important clarification on the retention ofdigital materials and access to our collections.

From January 2013 SAGE will begin selling and marketing Adam Matthew
products globally.

SAGE’s global presence will enable the further dissemination of Adam
Matthew products into new markets. Recent expansion has shown thatthere is a great appetite for Adam Matthew products and thisrelationship will support that demand.

All enquiries relating to Adam Matthew products will continue to be
managed by the Adam Matthew team.

We are extremely excited about this new relationship and believe the
next phase of Adam Matthew’s growth and development will be very wellsupported by the SAGE Group. We look forward to discussing thesedevelopments with you over the next few months as we meet many of youon our travels around the world.

Many thanks for your continued support,
The Adam Matthew Team
www.amdigital.co.uk | info@amdigital.co.uk

Springer for sale

From Sky News, October 10, 2012:
Academic Publishing Giant Springer For Sale

TERMS: Techniques for Electronic Resource Management

This is a wiki I recently learned about that may be helpful for librarians when thinking about electronic resources: TERMS: Techniques for Electronic Resource Management. It was created by Jill Emery, Portland State University, and Graham Stone, University of Huddersfield in an effort to create best practices for managing electronic resources. It provides information about different stages in the management process and what you need to take into consideration. Very helpful!

YBP's Annual Book Price update

YBP has released its annual book price update, based on data from their fiscal year of July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012. This is good information for academic libraries managing budgets and trying to plan spending.

Most interesting is that the average book price for cloth books is $83.59USD, and book prices are up 3.2%. Also, ebook prices from the aggregators that YBP uses (ebrary, Ebsco and EBL) averaged $95.14USD, a decrease of 2% from the previous year.

YBP predicts a 3-4% increase in the cost of both academic print and e-books for this fiscal year.

SCOAP3 Open Access Initiative launched

In case you missed it, on Monday SCOAP3 was officially launched at CERN. From the Press Release:

Publishers of 12 journals, accounting for the vast majority of articles in the field, have been identified for participation in SCOAP3 through an open and competitive process, and the SCOAP3 initiative looks forward to establishing more partnerships with key institutions in Europe, America and Asia as it moves through the technical steps of organizing the re-direction of funds from the current subscription model to a common internationally coordinated fund. SCOAP3 expects to be operational for articles published as of 2014.