The Gatekeeper  Strategy in the Library Market | The Scholarly Kitchen

"As I mentioned previously on the Kitchen, I am currently working with Ithaka S+R on a project to, among other things, assess Amazon’s role in book sales to libraries. My colleagues on this project, my fellow Kitchen chef Roger Schonfeld and Liam Sweeney, have been assembling a huge amount of data, which is likely to yield a number of unanticipated insights into library purchasing — and, not incidentally, a stream of blog posts from Roger and me. From my point of view (Ithaka is exploring this from a different angle), one such insight emerged unexpectedly at AAUP this year, when Roger and Liam presented some slides on the principal library vendors. One slide was of the leading vendors of serials (including journals), the other of vendors of books. Surprise! The top vendor of both formats is one and the same. That uncomfortable feeling you get when you look at this information? You are witnessing the unfolding of a gatekeeper strategy by EBSCO, whose apparent aim is to mediate as much commerce as possible between publishers and academic libraries ... "