Points to keep in mind

• Most important – PREPARATION
• Negotiation takes time and it is learning by doing.
• Know your goals and needs
• Know who you are dealing with
• Before meetings ask who will attend from the other side
• Make sure your side attends with equal (or more) number of staff. If possible have senior staff members attend the meetings.
• Listen carefully and communicate clearly
• Have agendas for all meetings prior to meeting
• Take notes
• Agree on action points
• Follow up on action points
• Know when to break or walk away
• Don’t get angry or annoyed, stay focused
• The content you negotiate for can most often only be obtained through one provider, so if you walk away from the negotiation you will not get access to the material.
• The final agreement should preferably be good for both sides – a so called win-win agreement
• Even if the content owner says that the license can’t be negotiated you should still try. Quite often it will be possible to make changes.
• Content owners want to sell.
• Is the content essential to your users?
• Be sure about you needs – is the content nice to have or do you need it?
• Should you negotiate for a trial period?
• What are your “must haves” clauses? (if any)
• What are you “nice to have” clauses? (if any)
• What is the price for your “important” clauses?
• If you already have access to the content, analyze the usage carefully.
• Ask for publisher’s commitment to long term preservation.
• What can you use during negotiations? What is your bargain chip?
• Should you go for a smaller collection and then have “patron driven access”.
• Or if your budget is very limited a pay per view option with a prepaid.
• You don’t always have to go for the option the publisher lay out for you. It is your needs and your budget that is key so know both before you start talking to the publisher.
• Keep in mind that subscribing to academic journals/databases/e-books is usually ongoing.
• If you are prepared to go into a multi-year agreement it can give substantial discounts.