Overview

The seminar intends to offer the opportunity to consider the likely future scenarios of the scientific information market, starting from the introductory papers presented by two main players of the UK library community, and an overview of the most important news and projects of the major commercial publishers.

From the hot and controversional issue of Open Access we will discuss the challenges facing not only commercial publishers, but also libraries and librarians; the developments of the consortial approach, in the context of dramatic market changes and new publishers strategies, will represent the second track of our ideal trip.
The commercial publishers will give presentations about their new products, services and features, taking into account these major changes.

The two introductory papers will be:

• 4th October: Paul Ayris, Director of Library Service, University College London, with a paper titled The Challenges of the Scholar Communication
• 5th October: Paul Harwood, Partner of Content Complete Ltd, the consultancy firm in charge of the negotiation of the NESLI licenses; Harwood's paperl will focus on the evolution and trends of consortial negotiations with a paper titled: Category Killers and Fractional Buyers: the changing nature of publisher-library relationships.