Sally,

Are you being told you won't have access to the full text for 2008-2009 if you don't pay the increase?  It almost sounds like they are trying to mask a huge increase for the current renewal year by classifying part of it as a previous subscription year increase.

I would certainly contest this increase --hard to do when you absolutely have to have the journal access, but I would let them know you are not happy about it.  I contested an exorbitant mid-year increase for a title that I was subscribing to through my sub agent.  Not only was the increase ridiculous (182%) I didn't have it in my budget to pay.  I contacted both my agent and the publisher, and told them I would not renew the following year, and to either refund what we had paid already, or cut off the full text access mid-year.  The publisher let us keep our full text at the original price for the entire year without paying anything more, because our agent had not been notified of the increase in a timely manner.  Just some food for thought...

The only legal recourse I can think of is if you had a provision in your contract with the publisher that indicates the rate per subscription renewal is locked in and cannot be increased in subsequent years.

Perhaps you can work something out with them...

Best,

Joanne

Joanne V. Romano, MLS
Licensing and Serials Librarian
Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library
1133 John Freeman Blvd.
Houston, TX  77030
713-799-7144
fx:   713-799-7180
joanne.romano@exch.library.tmc.edu
 

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Smith
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 12:16 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] AORN retrospective price increase

Hello,
I have just been invoiced by my vendor for a publisher rate increase.  While
this happens frequently this increase in for the period November 2008 -
October 2009, does anyone else find it odd that a publisher would increase
the rate for past volumes?  Is there any recourse?  What is to stop them
from raising their rates for the 2006 - 2007 volumes as well?

Sally

Sally Smith
Bethel University Library/Serials Dept.
3900 Bethel Drive  St. Paul, MN 55112
Phone:  651-635-8544   Fax:  651-635-2393
http://www.library.bethel.edu/