Directors Discuss Licence Challenges

Publisher negotiations and regional support headline Jisc visit to Mercian

On October 12th the Mercian Collaboration Directors met at Nottingham Trent for their second biannual meeting.  During a packed day of discussions, the Directors were delighted to welcome Liam Earney, Director of Jisc Collections to the meeting.  Liam spoke about a variety of topics, including the recent and extensive sector wide publisher negotiations that Jisc had undertaken on behalf of the Higher Education community.  He also took the opportunity to share with the Directors a range of information regarding the current reorganisations at Jisc, particularly as they related to regional support.  Following a lengthy question and answer session, the Chair, on behalf of the Directors, expressed their gratitude for Liam’s visit, and especially the discussions it had generated.  On behalf of Jisc, Liam praised the academic library director community for their unity during the publisher negotiations, expressing that without their support this would have been a far more challenging prospect.