Matt Cox, Head of Content Delivery and Discovery at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said the library had been “heavily impacted by the changes” made by Clarivate requiring significant changes to ARU's book and eBook acquisitions.

Matt, who is also a committee member of the National Acquisitions Group, said: “The impact on the sector may take some time to filter through.

“The sense I had though was that it was split in thirds. About a third of us have moved immediately to pivot away, another third are intending to pivot away soon, and the last third are intending to stay with ProQuest as long as possible.”

Matt said he had been a happy customer and remains complimentary about the effectiveness of the service before it was so suddenly and unexpectedly earmarked for cancellation.

“ARU previously had circa 80 per cent of all book acquisitions via Rialto with ProQuest as the supplier,” he said, adding: “We have now shifted this completely and are ordering via two alternative suppliers (70/30) completely bypassing ProQuest."

"This has not been an easy shift. Rialto brings streamlined workflows and was efficiently used by the team. However, we decided to move away from ProQuest immediately because for us print purchasing and perpetual eBook purchases are key, and whilst the delay was welcome, ultimately, we would have to move at some point, so we decided to move straight away.”

He said that despite Clarivate relaxing of the deadline, internal factors at ARU had made it necessary to move fast: “We moved at pace to get one of the suppliers setup on our LMS. This was critical for us as I wanted more than one supplier (with losing ProQuest we only had one other supplier setup) and also our Systems Librarian was retiring soon so I was eager to get the supplier setup and tested before he left us.”

Demand Driven Acquisition

A popular service Clarivate subsidiary ProQuest offered was its Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA) which allowed libraries to offer a wider range of materials, and only acquire those that are actively used by patrons. Matt said: “Our DDA with ProQuest was very successful – with a CPU (cost per use) that was better than texts on our reading lists. We have an open profile, limited to our subjects, and with certain criteria like published within the last 3 years etc, but otherwise open as I’m keen to maximise opportunities for students. Technically, ProQuest have an excellent setup with DDA settings and options, so it may be challenging to replicate exactly what we had with them.”

He said: “It was frustrating having to make these changes. We were perfectly happy ordering via ProQuest (utilising Rialto) but for me it comes down to trust. I lost the trust, which is why I moved immediately to shift away.”

Future of print

“For a lot of institutions, print is still essential. For some, particularly heavy on art, it will surely always be. For me it’s quite simple, some students will always prefer print books over eBooks. So why would we take this option away from them? Therefore, we will always need print suppliers. Hopefully in the future this will mean smaller suppliers come on the scene and become viable alternatives.

"EBSCO and others were quick to email us all pointing out they weren’t making moves like this – let’s hope they stick to their word. They will presumably be picking up lots of new business from institutions who want print books and perpetually licenced eBooks, now being forced to shift away from ProQuest. eBook licences like this are key for us for two main reasons.

1) We want to own our eBooks, we don’t want to necessarily subscribe.

2) We don’t want to lose access to titles on reading lists, if for example they leave a subscription service, then students would get a broken link. That would be an awful student experience which is why we want the assurance that if we add a title, it will be there all year.”