Texas Attorney General Orders "Big Deal" Bundle Contracts Released - 8/27/2009 - Library Journal

"On August 5, the Texas Attorney General (AG) ordered that contracts between both Springer and Elsevier and the University of Texas (UT) system be released to economists Paul Courant (also University of Michigan Library dean), Ted Bergstrom, and Preston McAfee. The ruling goes against claims made by the publishers to the AG's office, arguing that the contracts constituted trade secrets that would adversely affect the their 'proprietary interests.'...[T]he official statement [of the AG] went further, saying "[t]his office considers the prices charged in government contract awards to be a matter of strong public interest."