Wiley withdraws 80 ebooks from UL Autumn Semester modules – update for academic staff

Wiley withdraws 80 ebooks from UL Autumn Semester modules – update for academic staff 

This update is to alert faculty to the loss of access to Wiley e-books in the Proquest Academic Complete collection of 179K+ ebooks to which the library subscribes.  This is due to action taken by the publisher Wiley to remove their titles from a collection that UL and many other universities have subscribed to. This was poorly communicated and extremely badly timed, coinciding with the resumption of classes this week.

Over 1,300 e-books were removed from the library’s Academic Complete collection. For UL, the critical loss is 80 titles that are recommended on reading lists in Semester 1.  This is a serious withdrawal of content at a critical point in the academic year and the library is working hard to try to minimize the impact on students.  As we and other libraries explore access options with Wiley we will support individual lecturers affected by this.

Library staff will play an active advisory role in helping faculty identify available, affordable or open readings and resources for their modules. As we contact faculty this week whose reading lists are impacted, you can also take action yourself by

a)      Reviewing your Autumn module reading list to identify Wiley e-content that can be replaced with an alternative

b)      Consulting the library’s catalogue to see if there is an e-book alternative in the library’s 450,000+ ebook holdings that can be a substitute for any Wiley e-book that is no longer available

c)      Requesting an e-chapter that the library can digitise and add to your module reading list if we have the print book in the collection. Send requests to libinfo@ul.ie and remember, there is a copyright limit of one chapter per book.

This is part of a worldwide problem with ebook publishing models which has escalated during Covid19 as publishers seek to increase their revenue from ebook formats. It is causing serious disruption to how libraries provide access to ebook titles.

The library is working nationally on this problem through the #ebookSOS Campaign where UL is represented by Ciara McCaffrey. The #ebooksos group is working with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Government Departments, and the HEA and Knowledge 21 - an EU programme on this matter.  The campaign is supported by CONUL, Irish research libraries consortium and the IUA Librarians Group.

Additional information:

• The EbookSOS campaign in Ireland from An Leabharlann
• This JISC briefing paper includes a call to action for academics, outlining what the scholarly community can do about this issue
• The Guardian: Price gouging from Covid': student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print
• BBC News: University staff urge probe into e-book pricing 'scandal'
• A campaign to Investigate the Ebook Market for Libraries, using the hashtag #EbookSOS, unites librarians and academics across social media around this issue and tracks incidents that highlight the worst practices among publishers.
• Signatures are invited from across the globe – click here to add your signature.
• Newstalk FM: an interview with the President of the Library Association of Ireland and University Librarian at Maynooth University, Cathal McCauley.

Enquiries about any of the above should be directed to the Library by email and a member of the Library’s Management Team will respond to you if required.