ALPSP Learned Journals Collection Opens its Doors With a Whopping 247 Titles

The ALPSP Learned Journals Collection (ALJC) is open for business today, launching its unique collection of 247 journals from 25 diverse publishers. The ALJC (www.alpsp-collection.org) enables small and medium-sized publishers to package their journals with a single umbrella license, pricing model and delivery platform. The new online collection is the result of a unique collaboration between the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), Swets Blackwell and Extenza. Swets Blackwell has orchestrated ALJCs complex licensing and legal structure and also serves as its worldwide sales, marketing and access channel.

The ALJC spares customers the hassle of negotiating e-licenses and pricing with diverse publishers, allowing them to access high quality e-journals directly via SwetsWise online content. The 247 ALJC titles are available both in the full Collection and in three discipline-specific packages in the areas of medicine & life science (85 titles), science & technology (57 titles), and the arts, humanities & social sciences (129 titles). Pricing is based on a percentage of the ALJCs current collective print value and is guaranteed for 3 years. Both print-plus-electronic and electronic-only options are available -- customers may migrate from one to the other during the 3-year license agreement period. Special consortial arrangements are available. Detailed pricing and license information is available on the ALJC website.

Sally Morris, Secretary-General of ALPSP, said: The ALPSP Learned Journals Collection represents a win-win solution both for smaller publishers and for libraries. We are delighted by the scale of publisher support in its very first year, and -- if early reactions from libraries are anything to go by -- all the participants will be seeing increased sales in 2004."

Steven Hartman, Swets Blackwells Commercial Director, said: An exciting new era for global consortia and multi-site purchasing has arrived. The ALJC project allows key scholarly content to be easily maintained and used, while the ALJC partnership has created an excellent precedent for future initiatives."

The ALJC is accessible via SwetsWise and currently contains 247 titles from the following 25 publishers: ALPSP, American Institute of Biological Sciences, Australian Academic Press, Beech Tree Publishing, British Psychological Society, Carden Jennings Publishing Co. Ltd., Chartered Institute of Building, Hindawi Publishing, Imaginative Minds, Institute of Psychoanalysis, Institution of Chemical Engineers, IOS Press, Kingston Press, Makerere, Multilingual Matters / Channel View Publications, OECD, Questions Publishing, The Royal Society, Royal Society of Medicine Press, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, School of Social Work, Society for Personality Research, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, Vathek, and Walter de Gruyter.

About ALPSP
ALPSP is the international trade association for the community of not-for-profit publishers and those who work with them to disseminate academic and professional information. It was founded in 1972, and currently has 272 members in 27 countries. ALPSP carries out research and other projects, monitors national and international issues and represents members' interests to the wider world. It offers an extensive program of courses, seminars, and training as well as an informative website (www.alpsp.org), a quarterly journal, Learned Publishing, and a monthly electronic newsletter, ALPSP Alert.

About Swets Blackwell
Swets Blackwell is the worlds leading subscription agent, with offices in 23 countries on 6 continents. It provides a wide range of subscription management solutions for academic, scientific, technical, medical, corporate and government libraries and information centers worldwide. Founded in 1901, Swets Blackwell (www.swetsblackwell.com) counts among its 60,000 customers many of the worlds major research libraries and over 30% of the Fortune 500 companies. Swets Blackwells ongoing search for excellence in both process and service is reflected in its ISO 9001:2000 certification. Please note: Swets Blackwell will change its name to Swets Information Services as of December 2nd 2003.