The Benefits of Using Agents

The Benefits of Using Intermediaries

Subscription agents and intermediaries help libraries and publishers save money. They reduce the amount of time spent on the many detailed administrative tasks in acquiring and accessing journals, thus allowing librarians and publishers to focus their attention on other important matters. In the process they perform these administrative tasks more cheaply than would otherwise be the case.

     "Dealing directly with thousands of publishers, who invoice the library at different times, with different payment terms, in multiple currencies, dealing with multiple claiming terms, using multiple communication protocols, dealing with multiple customer service staff, some of whom (the foreign language publishers) would not necessarily have English speaking customer service staff, would all cost libraries far more in additional staff and systems than using an agent. That is why agents exist. The advent of the electronic journal has multiplied the pre-existing complexity several times over. Agents are responding to that increased complexity by developing new services and re-engineering back office systems.

     Similarly if libraries deal directly with publishers then those publishers will need to hire customer service staff to deal with multiple libraries and make additional system investments, all of which will increase costs and lead to higher subscription prices. Going direct is a non-starter for all but the smallest specialist libraries and largest publishers; it is a solution that does not scale."

     Chris Beckett, Scholarly Information Strategies, in Serials-eNews Alert, January 2003

Intermediaries help publishers and libraries alike reduce the costs of producing, distributing, managing and accessing their electronic journal and information services. Intermediaries:

· Offer technically advanced production services combined with state-of-the-art authentication and distribution services to many thousands of individuals and libraries worldwide.

· Generate significant economies of scale, reducing cost and effort for all.

· Have established ‘portals’ in the user community, frequently ‘book-marked’ and recommended by both users and libraries alike as sites of considerable relevance and usefulness - thus helping expand the publisher’s market reach.

· Offer aggregation services where they licence and re-package electronic journals and books into subject databases and collections. These are designed to meet different market needs from the individual content items they contain, expanding readership and generating additional revenue opportunities for the publisher

· Frequently provide advanced discovery services with links to the full text together with training and technical support.

· Frequently specialise in the needs of highly specific markets to the advantage of both information users and publishers.