The Consortium Baden-Wuerttemberg, an alliance of the scientific libraries of the federal state located in the south-west of Germany, has signed an agreement with STM publisher Elsevier to provide 52 universities and institutions of higher education with comprehensive access to approximately 2,500 scientific journals. The agreement is valid for three years and includes many top journal titles such as 'The Lancet'.
With immediate effect all members of universities and institutions of higher education in Baden-Wuerttemberg will receive, for the first time, comfortable access to approximately 2,500 electronically published journals from Elsevier.
Prof. Dr. Hans Jochen Schiewer, Chairman of the State Rectors' Conference Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rector of the University of Freiburg, signed the state license agreement together with Dr. Antje Kellersohn, Chairwoman of the Consortium Baden-Wuerttemberg and Director of the University Library Freiburg, and Jörg Limberg, VP Research Solutions at Elsevier, in the presence of Michael Kleiner from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The agreement with Elsevier is an important component in the strategy of the state government: 'E-Science - Science under new framework conditions'. The strategy is based on a recommendation by experts from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art and is being implemented by the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The license model also serves as a reference for the project group "DEAL - nation-wide licensing of journal portfolios of big scientific publishers" of the Alliance of German Science Organizations (Allianz der Deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen) and the German Rectors' Conference. Two directors from Baden-Wuerttemberg university libraries are contributing to this initiative: Frank Scholze, university library Karlsruhe, and Dr. Antje Kellersohn, university library Freiburg, spokesperson of the project group.
