Team based Negotiations for

Library Collections
Courtney Crummett
MIT Libraries
Timberline Acquisitions Institute
May 2019
Team based Negotiations for Library Collections

● History and context

● Negotiation team overview and process
● Principled negotiation method
● Negotiation planning template
● Outcomes and savings
● Activity
 FROM TO
Scholarly Communications Collection Budgets
Program and the placed underneath the
Collections Budget Scholarly
working independently Communications
Program

New Name: Scholarly Communications & Collections Strategy Department

Image credit: Umbrella Dollar Sign

 Negotiations Team Members

Head of Scholarly Communication and

Collections Strategy

Head of Acquisitions and Appraisals Department

Scholarly Communication & Licensing Librarian

Liaison Librarian

Image credit: MIT Libraries Staff Directory

 Principled Negotiation Methods

It is a technique designed to meet the needs of both sides as

much as possible, quickly, while maintaining or improving
relationships.

Principled negotiations focuses on basic interests, mutually

satisfying options, and fair standards.
 Principled Negotiation Methods

4 points to a Principled Negotiation:

People: Separate the people from the problem

Interests: Focus on the interests, not positions
Options: Invent multiple options looking for mutual gains
Criteria: Use objective standards
 How do we do principled negotiations?

People: Separate the people from the problem

We make and manifest the commitment to do this

Interests: Focus on the interests, not positions

We use the “umbrella speech”

We express our interest, values, and aims
Options: Invent multiple options looking for mutual gains
before deciding what to do.

We explain that we are open to options and

experimentation

Criteria: Refer to standards and guidelines

COUNTER statistics
IASTM Publisher guidelines for reuse of figures and
text
 More on our interests….

● We want to appropriately steward the collections budget;

we consider the cost benefit on the value to our community
versus the price
● We want to advance MIT’s mission of open access to
research and scholarship
● We want to support MIT’s open access policy
● We are interested in experiments that advance openness in
scholarly communication
More on our interests…that support scholarly
communications through specific licensing terms

○ MIT Authors’ ability to reuse figures/tables/limited

amounts of text in new publications without seeking
permission
○ Perpetual access
○ Automatic deposit of MIT authored manuscripts into
our IR
○ Text and data mining access
 More on how we do it….

1. Use principled negotiation techniques

2. Identified our interests, values and aims
3. Negotiation planning template
Your ALTERNATIVES
We could:
● cancel (often not an option)
● renew at lower price
● cancel some content to save
money
● renew with a modified deal that
addresses our OA aims
Your INTERESTS & PRIORITIES
We want:
● options that support MIT’s
mission of open research
● cost containment
● the content
● transparent pricing
● aligns with licensing principles,
eg privacy issues.
Estimation of Other Party’s
ALTERNATIVES
They could:
● offer multi-year
● not change original offer
● lower price
● offer OA pilot
Estimation of Other
Party’s INTERESTS &
PRIORITIES
They want:
● to keep MIT Libraries as a
customer
● consistent pricing model
across subscribers
SHARED Interests TRADABLE Interests

We both want to: We could trade on:

● keep content ● multi-year options
● experiment beyond price ● some OA component
● build the relationship

Opening Conversation Outline

● Umbrella speech
● Interest, values and aims specific to this purchase/renewal
● Update from publisher since we last spoke
So how has this worked out for us?

1. Chair turns
2. What the heck?
3. Wait... we want the same thing
Rights FY17 /7 FY18 /8

TDM 4 1
MITx 4
Course Packs/Reserves 1
Author Rights 2
Perpetual Access 1
Data Privacy 1
Autodeposit 2
Savings $153,845 $41,988
Closing thoughts...

● We are a very tight team and that is really rewarding to

be a part of.
● The work has a tangible impact
● It’s hard to herd cats (publisher/vendor)
● Principled negotiation methods deliver results
● We are building strong relationships with publishers
Questions?
Activity: Try the worksheet

Scenario:

Your cable company is going to raise your monthly bill

by $20. You plan to call them to find out if there is a
way to keep your bill the same or reduce it. Use the
worksheet handout to organize and plan for that
conversation.

Remember, if you don’t have options to put on the

table, principled negotiation technique cannot be used.
 More on our interests….

Criteria for Transformative Agreements

○ Must have mechanisms to control costs and financial risk
○ Must have exit mechanism back to subscription
approach at reasonable price comparable to prior pricing
○ Must be a trusted partner (preferably a nonprofit)
○ Wording to authors about the program must be clear and
appropriate for our community