The #ebookSOS campaign applauds and echoes today’s joint statement from the Library Association of Ireland, the Consortium of National and University Libraries, the Irish Universities’ Association Librarians’ Group and the Technological Higher Education Association Librarians’ Group, condemning the recent move by Wiley to remove over 1000 key titles from key subscription packages.
For further background information on this move and #ebookSOS’s position, see our previous blog post.
We echo the statement’s dissatisfaction with Wiley’s action, particularly highlighting the timing at the start of the academic year when many titles have already been selected for reading lists, and the lack of consultation with libraries.
We also join in condemning the move by Wiley to re-label many of the withdrawn titles as etextbooks and subsequently market them on a subscription model, which simply increases the costs for libraries and forces them to repay for items they already licensed in good faith as part of wider packages.
We hope that the UK library sector will join with our Irish colleagues in condemning these actions undertaken by Wiley