As a proactive measure, we've created a department within our organization to monitor and address licensing issues for customers as they arise. Not only is our role changing, but our customers are changing. Certainly the vast majority of our customers are still individual libraries. But more and more often, we are approached to handle negotiations for consortia or, in the United States, statewide organizations purchasing materials for a very diverse user population. As electronic access becomes ever more prevalent, we will likely see the number of individual subscriptions shrink and the number of consortia increase, as libraries have recognized the value of working together to acquire flexible, value-adding deals from major publishers.
Consortia now exist in every part of the globe.
First, vendors have a lot of information gathering means and tools. Also, because of our many years of working with both client and publisher, and because of our efforts in making electronic access a reality, we are familiar with technical and legal implications of licenses, the requirements of the local library system, conditions and policies, consortia requirements and more. Along with changes in our role and changes in our customers, we also see a great deal of change among publishers. This adds a new competitor for the agent-aggregator. On the other side of the spectrum, we see publishers who want content online, but need assistance in getting it there.