​EIFL held a webinar with guest speaker Monique Dikboom, licence manager at Maastricht University Library in the Netherlands, to discuss the evaluation of subscription renewals. 

During the webinar, librarians learned about key aspects to consider when it comes to renewing big package deals as well as subscriptions to individual titles.

The webinar concluded with some general advice for librarians on subscription renewals and negotiations with publishers: 

• Check the usage of the e-resource to be renewed: there is no point in renewing a resource that nobody uses. Usage is an indicator of your users’ needs.
• Make sure there is no content overlap within the library’s collection: there is no point in paying for the same content twice
• Inform your payer and decision makers and ask for their commitment
• Question price increases
• Don’t be afraid to cancel
• Establish a good relationship with your publisher’s representative
• Prepare well in advance
• Know the limit of your budget: it tells you how far you can go during negotiations
• Don’t accept a first price proposal: use it as an invitation to negotiate
• Make a list of arguments, in advance, and use this to get the best deal possible
• Remember that it’s not always just about the price, but also about the terms of the licence: for example, the permission to use the content for interlibrary loan or electronic course packs 

Supporting materials

• View the presentation in PDF
• Download the presentation in Powerpoint
• ​Watch the webinar on YouTube

Related links

• News item with a summary of the webinar