The Librarian's Guide to Negotiation by Beth Ashmore & Jill E. Grogg & Jeff Weddle

Author:Beth Ashmore & Jill E. Grogg & Jeff Weddle [ASHMORE, BETH]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781573870160
Publisher: Information Today, Inc.

One industry veteran shared the following scenario of a negotiation between a librarian employed by a publisher and an aggregator wishing to include the publisher’s content in its products. In the mid-1990s, in the early days of digitization, publisher A had accepted a one-page aggregator contract as is, no questions asked. Publisher A hired a new librarian, and the librarian closely read the contract and realized that while the business terms were sufficient, other parts of the contract were too simplistic and did not address all the necessary terms and conditions. She contacted the appropriate representative at the aggregator, and the two agreed to meet and work through the issues together. In the meantime, upper management at the aggregator arranged a surprise meeting at a conference with both the aggregator’s representative and the librarian in attendance, in essence disregarding their agreement to meet.

With this action, the upper management at the aggregator was taking advantage of the environment, acting from a position of strength, and using surprise to unsettle the librarian and diminish the librarian’s power. All of this, it would seem, was in preparation for a deathblow to the librarian’s case. If that was the intent, then the unannounced meeting was the decisive, appropriate action at the appropriate time. Trade the surprise meeting for a sword, and the librarian is cut in two, end of story. Musashi would be proud. As it happened, the death blow was not delivered. Rather, the upper management at the aggregator backed down from the meeting after learning that a good working relationship already existed between the two parties. But the aggressive action of calling the meeting seriously damaged, for a time, the trust that had been carefully built between them. Now, you may be thinking, Musashi’s pride would turn to scorn. You are sure that he would make it clear that when one strikes an opponent, the only positive outcome is to vanquish that opponent. In serious conflict, leaving the opponent wounded but able to respond is never a good idea. And that would be one way to look at things. Another way would be to declare that the aggregator, realizing the reality of the situation at hand, employed ordered flexibility by calling off the meeting and letting the original negotiators proceed. Trust was restored; in time, a mutually satisfactory conclusion was reached. As this was the desired outcome, Musashi would certainly approve.

The preceding scenario offers several teaching points. One has been discussed in previous chapters but cannot be stressed enough: Every contract needs to be read and understood by both parties. In this example, the complexity of the deal between the publisher and the aggregator necessitated a more detailed contract. Especially in the early days of digitization and electronic journal publishing, publishers, libraries, and the like had any number of individuals within the organization signing contracts and agreeing to terms and conditions. Companies were more likely to have lawyers reviewing contracts, but lawyers may or may not understand the intricate world of electronic publishing and library-publisher relationships.

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