This is the explanation of the Royal Historical Society’s decision to transfer its bibliography to Brepols Publishing next January and for access to become subject to charge. (This text has been pasted from H-Albion.) There is an extremely interesting debate going on about this decision at Brett Holman’s blog, Airminded.
I am forwarding a message from Miles Taylor, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, and Colin Jones, President of the Royal Historical Society, responding to some of the issues raised by colleagues over the last week on the H-ALBION discussion lists about the future of the RHS Bibliography. All best wishes, Ian W. Archer General Editor RHS Bibliography of British and Irish History ========================================= Dear Colleagues, We have noted recent postings concerning the announcement of changes concerning the Royal Historical Society Bibliography of British and Irish History. With effect from 1 January 2010, the Bibliography will be renamed Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), and will be run by a partnership comprising the Royal Historical Society (RHS), the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and the international academic publisher, Brepols publishers. A Press Release and a set of FAQs concerning the change are posted on the websites of both the RHS and the IHR. Please see the home pages of our institutions: http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/ or http://www.history.ac.uk/ A number of colleagues on H-Albion and elsewhere have expressed particular concern about one specific feature of the change envisaged, namely, the move from a free to a charging regime. Of course we understand that concern. We thought it would be helpful, therefore, to outline the context for this change, amplifying the points made in the existing information on our institutional websites. Though free at the point of use, the production of the Bibliography entails considerable costs. The value added of the Bibliography depends on high quality indexing which cannot be automated, and the project employs two members of staff. Since 1998, these costs have largely been borne by four generous Project Grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Board/Council (AHRB/C), which allowed the Bibliography to inaugurate its current on-line status in 2002. It should be emphasized that prior to this stream of funding the Bibliography was only available by purchasing a CD-ROM and the hard copy print volumes which added recent publications. The period of free access reflected the ready availability of money for new electronic resources in the first part of this decade. But as projects multiplied, research councils became more concerned about their sustainability. For several years now, we have been in high-level consultations with the AHRC about continuation funding. At every point in these consultations, we made the point about the problems faced by resources such as ours whose utility depends on their being kept up to date, with the additional implications for costs that this entails. However, our discussions with the AHRC left us in no doubt that a further grant was unlikely when our current funding ceases in December 2009. The Council supports individual projects rather than the long-term continuation of research infrastructural resources, and stresses innovation rather than maintenance of existing projects. In this context, the RHS and IHR began working closely together to devise a sustainable future for a resource which we believe is highly esteemed across the globe. We undertook extensive consultation with charitable foundations and with major universities and university libraries. Those consultations were informed by advice from colleagues from The National Archives, from Board-members of NACBS and from one of Britain’s premier university presses. Our quest for alternative charitable support on even a short-term basis was fruitless. All potential major grants had the character of seedcorn money to get a project off the ground, and that they too (like the AHRC) expected a model built around sustainability. Three alternatives presented themselves: a) closure of the inputting service, effectively mothballing the bibliography through placing it as at 31 December 2009 on a university website for an indeterminate period; b) adoption of a cottage industry model for example through “crowdsourcing”; c) commercial partnership to develop as a subscription resource. Our thinking was guided by the twin principles of sustainability and maintenance of high quality. Option a) it should be noted would not be cost free as the web hosting charges involved are not inconsiderable; in any event we were not keen on abandoning a century’s worth of bibliographic endeavour: it was in 1909 that the Society at the instigation of Sir George Prothero began its involvement in the production of bibliographies of British history; the Institute has been an enthusiastic partner since its establishment in the 1930s. Option b) was seen as having potential but would have entailed sacrifice of quality. The Bibliography offers things which crowdsourcing cannot guarantee: i) consistency of indexing (including period covered); ii) identification of what is British or Irish history; iii) finding journals, especially those published by respected local history societies, that do not have a web presence and are not covered by services like EBSCO or even JSTOR; iv) finding chapters in collective volumes. We were extremely reluctant to compromise on the quality of an established resource with a high international reputation. Option c) appeared the only plausible option, and we chose that, exploring the possibilities with several other renowned publishers before deciding on Brepols, who offered an arrangement which most clearly met our academic priorities. IHR and RHS are delighted to have entered into new joint partnership in pursuit of this option with a publisher with an excellent record in and commitment to our field: for almost 15 years, Brepols has operated the International Medieval Bibliography. We also believe that Brepols’s experience in this sector will improve the (already very high) quality of the service that the Bibliography provides. We are particularly pleased that Brepols is whole-heartedly committing to this venture at a very difficult time in the business cycle and with university library budgets under strain. The new partnership promises to allow the Bibliography to adapt swiftly to changing technology in this area. We wish to stress that the new arrangements involve genuine partnership. Editorial continuity between BBIH and the RHS Bibliography is very substantial. Our immensely-respected and long- serving RHS Literary Director, Dr Ian Archer, will continue in the role of the BBIH’s Academic Editor. The IHR’s Dr Jane Winters, a highly-experienced and key member of the existing team, will take on the enhanced role of Publishing/Technical Editor. There is continuity too in the paid staff on the project at the IHR. In addition, the new arrangements will involve increased financial input from both the IHR and the RHS, who are joint partners in the enterprise. Colleagues would like more information about subscription prices. Brepols has a tradition of reasonable subscription prices, which has also been an element in our decision. Subscriptions prices will take into account to a certain degree the budgetary difficulties libraries face at the moment. A pricing schedule has been worked out for the UK that recognizes the funding from which the BBIH has benefited in the past and that takes into account the size of interested institutions. We encourage scholars worldwide to pursue with Brepols through their librarians the idea of involvement in consortia deals. If you want to know what a subscription to BBIH will cost for your institution we advise to contact Brepols directly ( brepolis@brepols.net <mailto:brepolis@brepols.net>) We also have negotiated with Brepols the introduction in 2012 of a preferential rate for Fellows of the RHS and Friends of the IHR. We would also point out that access to BBIH will be free onsite at the IHR from 1 January 2010. It is also worth noting that, in the light of its extensive past financial support for the project, AHRC required us to justify our strategy of a move from free to subscription service. The AHRC stipulates in such cases that the charging model adopted is designed for sustainability rather than profitability, and that it will not exclude the key target audience from accessing the material (i.e. the costing model is not prohibitive and that there is some evidence to demonstrate that the resource could still be accessed widely). We believe that colleagues will be reassured that the AHRC accepted that our model (which included still-confidential guidelines on pricing) met these requirements. Several commentators have expressed concerns about independent scholars; we share those concerns, and will be keeping an eye on the take-up of individual subscriptions. But it should be noted that the evidence of our user surveys suggests that usage is overwhelmingly concentrated in the HE sector. We have noted among colleagues who have commented on plans for the Bibliography a wish to know if there is anything they can still do to help the situation. In the long term, growing awareness of the difficulty of sustainability for research resources like the Bibliography could stimulate a debate across the arts and humanities sector – and hopefully change the policies of research councils worldwide. In the short term, there is one very concrete way that that colleagues can help to make the BBIH as widely available and as cheap as possible: that is, to bring to bear all the pressure that they can manage on their local and institutional libraries to show a willingness to subscribe to what we believe is a fundamental research tool for the international historical community. We hope that these comments are of help and that colleagues will work with us in order to make the BBIH a resounding success. As always, we remain open to suggestions about how the service can be enhanced and its outreach extended. Miles Taylor Colin Jones Director President Institute of Historical Research Royal Historical Society Miles .Taylor@sas.ac.uk c.d.h.jones@qmul.ac.uk
