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To our valued library partners,

Last summer, Gale publicly expressed our concerns over exclusive licensing agreements (the practice of "locking up" a periodical publisher's content with a single information provider) and asked you to join us in a conversation about the impact on libraries and on those whom libraries serve. Many librarians expressed agreement, via blog, Twitter and phone calls.

Nevertheless, another information provider, EBSCO, persists in a practice that drives up costs while limiting access to information, and chooses to mislead libraries as to their purpose. We'd like to set the record straight:

• EBSCO has a long history of proactively approaching publishers and offering to pay a premium for exclusive rights to distribute their publications in libraries, having done this for more than a decade with academic journals.
• Now EBSCO is pursuing the same strategy with mainstream news and business publications, having recently paid a premium to secure full control over the distribution of two major periodicals publishers: Time Inc. and Forbes.

• Contrary to statements from EBSCO, Gale did bid for this content, offering proposals consistent with our policy against exclusivity. In both proposals, Gale included language that would allow all information providers to retain these titles in their products. Gale also submitted bids well in excess of the publishers' asking price just to keep the content available for all libraries. As stated in our bid, our intent was to license to all vendors with equal terms, without creating an advantage to Gale. EBSCO bid higher, as they were intent on securing this content exclusively for their own products.

• EBSCO made its bid contingent on having the right to exclusively distribute the content in the library market and, as they have stated, they will now be the only provider of these titles, raising the entire cost structure for periodical resources. It should be clearly noted that the publishers did not require this and were happy to allow Gale to sublicense their content to any other information provider, but EBSCO sought exclusivity and was willing to bid a higher price to get it.

What does this mean to you?

If you currently receive Time Inc. or Forbes periodical content electronically from Gale or any provider other than EBSCO, you and your patrons will lose access to that content over the next year. While there will remain alternative, high-quality titles in all information providers' products, there will be an impact on users, especially those who access content through long-term statewide subscriptions.

During this time of economic distress, Gale strongly believes that vendors should support libraries with advocacy efforts and sponsorships, and provide tools to increase usage rather than engage in practices that raise the entire cost structure of electronic resources. In the end, information providers who artificially drive up content licensing fees will have to pass those costs on to their customers. Gale believes this is fundamentally wrong.

We believe the practice of restricting access to information is in direct opposition to the core values of libraries. And given the current, unprecedented pressure on library budgets, we believe these actions are particularly ill-timed.

What you can do

Here are three things you can do to oppose exclusive licensing agreements:

1. Raise your voice. Join the Facebook group "Librarians for Fair Access to Content." Tweet. E-mail us at fairaccess@cengage.com. Call publishers and information providers and share your library's mission; tell them why these licensing practices are bad for libraries.
2. Pass this message along to other librarians and those who make decisions regarding your funding levels. Get others involved. There's strength in numbers.
3. Don't reward the behavior. Work with information providers who support your mission and understand your needs.

As the cost of licensing content increases artificially, prices will go up. If you worry about information costs going up, we ask you to take a stand.

If you feel strongly about providing your users with ongoing access to information, we encourage you to take action.

Thank you for your interest and participation.

Yours in partnership,

John Barnes
Executive Vice President, Marketing & Business Development
Gale, part of Cengage Learning