Publisher Oxford University Press (OUP), UK, has signed an agreement with the Manhattan Research Library Initiative (MaRLI) and the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN). Under the deal, OUP will deliver monograph content through its University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) e-book programme as well as a "shared collection" of print copies of all 2012 published scholarly works.
Under the programme, the affiliated institutions will have unlimited use and access to all new content added to UPSO in 2012, along with "a fiscally-viable plan" for purchasing one print copy of new scholarly books produced by the participating presses, through Yankee Book Peddler.
According to Angela Carreño, head of collection development at New York University, the agreement provides a new blueprint for providing scholarly content in the most convenient and accessible, user-friendly format to academics, students and researchers. It also redefines the relationships between publishers, library suppliers and librarians, and advances the MaRLI initiative to expand collections and better serve their users.
The programme is expected to build on the principles discussed at the August 2011 Beyond Print Summit, which explored "a dual electronic-plus-print environment" for the academic community.
The programme aims to strike a balance by ensuring that librarians and their patrons have access to the content they want in the format they prefer, in a model that makes it affordable when dual access is still a need. The deal is seen as a major advance for UPSO, which recently added the University of Chicago to its list of partners.
