The study presents data from 83 academic, medical, legal, corporate and public libraries and library consortia about how they train their librarians in negotiation skills, how they are assisted in negotiations, and which negotiations are they involved in. The report focuses particularly on negotiations for contracts for electronic information and other library materials and content, but also includes insights into the role and tactics of librarians in purchasing computers, furniture and in negotiating salaries for new hires.
Among the issues covered in the report are: library efforts to train librarians in negotiation techniques, use of consultants, use of professionals from other offices of the parent institution to assist in negotiations, spending on webinars, books, conferences and other information sources about contract negotiations, and much more. The study helps its readers to answer questions such as: How do libraries develop better negotiators? How do they rate their efforts vis-à-vis their peers? How important or central are librarians vs. other types of professionals in different types of negotiations? How do consortia differ from individual libraries in their approach to negotiations? How much are libraries spending on conferences, webinars and other information resources to aid in negotiations?
Data in the report is broken out separately for size and type of library. Separate data is available for medical libraries, legal and corporate libraries, academic libraries, public libraries and library consortia. Open ended questions are also broken out by this criteria.
Just a few of the study’s more than 80 participants are: Simon Fraser University, Tulane University, Georgetown University Law School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kaiser Permanente, the Department of Veteran Affairs (USA), the Commonwealth of Virginia, Ontario Colleges Library Service, Australian National University Library, DEFF Denmark’s Electronic Research Library, Stanford University, Phillips Lytle LLP, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Portland Public Library, Forschungszentrum Jülich, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, San Diego Public Library, Cedars-Sinai Health Systems, Nova Scotia Health Authority, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, Soongsil University, and Advokatfirman Vinge, among many others.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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In about 60% of the libraries sampled there is at least one individual or a team specialized in negotiations that is responsible for negotiating online information contracts. For Library Consortia 78% have at least one individual or one team specialized in negotiations.
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In 83% of libraries with more than $5,000,000 in annual spending, librarians are seriously involved or are key figures in negotiating database license contracts, while only 50% of the libraries with less than $50,000 in annual spending play similar key roles in negotiations.
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Only a third of the medical libraries sampled had made any expenditure over the past three years to support librarian negotiating skills, the lowest percentage among the library types sampled.
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Public librarians though that they had the most to gain from excellent negotiating skills, believing that excellent negotiators achieved price saving averaging 32% over the efforts of poor negotiators.