The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has issued a new document, Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortial Licenses. MLC has been active with ICOLC for many years and is one of the signatories to the statement.

Libraries all around the world are feeling the pinch of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown. In Michigan, we’ve been feeling the pain for quite some time now. This statement couldn’t have come at a better time as we struggle to maintain collections at their current levels.

The statements makes several important points:

• We expect significant and widespread cuts in budget levels for libraries and consortia: reductions unlike the sporadic or regional episodes experienced from year to year, with real and permanent reductions to base budgets. It may not be uncommon for library and consortia budgets to decline by double digits year over year.
• These cuts will be prolonged. The public and education sectors will likely lag in funding recovery.
• Putting price first will help all parties, because budget pressures will drive decisions in a way never seen before. Real price reductions will be welcomed and can help to sustain relationships through the hard times.
• Multi-year contracts will be possible only with clear opt-out and/or reduction clauses.

I think this is a powerful statement. It addresses our worries in a straight-forward, no-nonsense way, and asks publishers to take our environment into consideration. We cannot afford stiff price increases in our ejournal and database subscriptions. Modesty is the order of the day, but getting vendors to listen and believe us when we say we can afford no more than we already spend may require some tough decisions.

To that end, we will convene a meeting later this spring to discuss these issues further and decide how we can reinforce this message, as a group, to the publishers and database vendors which whom we have contracts. It will be a challenge for all of us to hang together. But if we can, we have the best chance of negotiating better deals and preserving our collections of e-resources.