Category Killers and Fractional Buyers: the changing nature of publisher-library relationships

Paul Harwood, Content Complete Ltd.

Abstract

We tend to hold-on to the belief that the world of scholarly communication operates in a vacuum, divorced from some of the key realities of business life and consumer behaviour.

Increasingly however, as new entrants and new models threaten to overturn the established order, this is less and less the case, and both the producers and consumers of scholarly content are having to adapt or face the prospect of a diminishing role.

This paper will look at the challenges facing publishers and libraries in a rapidly changing environment and how these may impact on the relationship between the two in the coming years.