What it is and why it matters

TRANSPARENCY

TRANSPARENT – OXFORD AMERICAN WRITER’S THESAURUS

Adj. – Obvious, evident, self-evident, undisguised, unconcealed, conspicuous, patent, clear, plain, (as) plain as the nose on your face, apparent, unmistakable, easily discerned, manifest, palpable, indisputable, unambiguous, unequivocal.

ANTONYMS – ambiguous, obscure.

(presumed ant. – disguised, concealed, mistakable, disputable, equivocal)

OLD SCHOOL PRICING THINKING

From ATG, June 2015 – Mike Gruenberg’s “Both Sides Now: Vendors and Librarians – Can You Give Me a ‘Ballpark’ Price of What This Will Cost?”

• Sales rep: “Can you share with me what’s in your budget allocated to buy the product I just described?”

• Librarian: “I really can’t give you that information until I know what you’re offering as incentives to buy.”

STALEMATE

TRANSPARENT PRICING

• Necessary for an atmosphere of trust

• Necessary for informed, ethical decision-making

• Transparency in pricing requires that information providers:

(1) share the pricing model* employed to arrive at the price and

(2) not prohibit procurers, through the use of nondisclosure agreements or license clauses, from sharing that information with others.

*not just ‘price’

MORE THAN JUST A GOOD IDEA . . .

An ethical mandate

• AALL Ethical Principles

• AALL Competencies of Law Librarianship

• Guide to Fair Business Practices

• Code of Best Practices for Licensing Electronic Resources

NELLCO STATEMENT ON TRANSPARENCY IN PRICING

Librarians are fiscal stewards of their institution's resources. As such, they have a responsibility to make informed acquisition decisions with respect to electronic resources. Without transparent pricing practices, truly informed decision-making cannot be realized. Transparency in pricing requires that information providers (1) share the pricing model employed to arrive at the price and (2) not prohibit procurers, through the use of nondisclosure agreements or license clauses, from sharing that information with others. In an effort to support our member libraries in meeting their duty to their institutions, NELLCO will require that all information providers with whom we negotiate from this date forward meet these minimum standards of transparency.