Last year, in 2011, the URI Library subscribed to 61 online journal titles from Springer Verlag, which cost a total of $101,864.70. With our vendor EBSCO’s 6.5% service charge, the total amount we paid for these titles was $108,485.90, or an average of $1,778.46 per title.

For 2012, by ordering through the NERL Consortium, we were able to eliminate the EBSCO service charge entirely and reduce the price increase for 2012 for our subscribed titles to 3% (less than market rate), for a total 2012 spend of $104,919.92. In addition, at no extra cost, Springer will provide us online access from 1997 to the present to all the journals they publish: 1,865 titles. This amounts to a price per title of $56.26. 

Thus, for a net decrease in total amount paid, we were able to increase the number of titles offered by 2,957.4% and decrease the cost per title by 96.8%.

Our annual price increase for this package for the next two years of this three-year agreement will not exceed 4%. No titles may be canceled during this time. Titles Springer acquires in 2012 and after, as well as new titles launched in 2011 and 2012, are not included in the package.