Oxford University Press and Regional Networks Announce Alliance

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AND REGIONAL NETWORKS ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Groundbreaking alliance will provide nationwide online access to the Oxford English Dictionary and American National Biography.

New York, New York -- July 20, 1999 Oxford University Press, Inc. (OUP) and the Regional Networks today announced a landmark agreement to join forces in the marketing and sale of online access to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and American National Biography (ANB) publications. Under the alliance, the Regional Networks, serving thousands of libraries, schools and other institutions across the United States, will offer cost-saving subscriptions to the online versions of the OED and ANB.

The Regional Networks will provide OUP with centralized ordering and billing, as well as the infrastructure to implement an equitable pricing model at the time of publication. The fees for subscriptions, based on a national aggregate of weighted users to the OED and ANB online publications, will be finalized in the coming months.

"Subscribing institutions will obtain significant savings through the national aggregation made possible through this arrangement with Oxford University Press," said James Rush, Executive Director, PALINET. "Although institutions can subscribe directly to OUP, they will not be eligible for the cost savings available through the national subscription."

To support an expected user population of seven to ten million in the United States, OUP will maintain a stable publication environment for the quarterly updates to both OED and ANB, as well as adhere to the guidelines of the International Consortium of Library Consortia (ICOLC) concerning statistics, technical issues, and the purchase of e-information resources.

Arnold Hirshon, Executive Director of NELINET, noted that while there has been at least one other national consortial aggregation and purchasing arrangement in the past, this agreement is ground breaking in several respects: "This is an alliance between the most highly respected non-profit scholarly publisher in the world, Oxford University Press, and the most well-established national consortium network in the United States. The arrangement also provides a coordinated regional approach that will aggregate and benefit the entire user population. Most importantly, the alliance will make two essential reference publications -- OED and ANB -- affordable to nearly every academic and public library."

"Our alliance with the Networks ensures that Oxford's flagship publications will be available to a substantial population upon launch," said Edward W. Barry, President, Oxford University Press, Inc. "It also allows OUP to focus resources on content quality and editorial presentation for our online publications, ensuring that users will enjoy the same high standards with OUP online as they have come to expect of our trademark print publications."

Mary-Alice Lynch, Executive Director of Nylink, concurs: "This is a win-win solution for Oxford, the Regional Networks, participating institutions, and the researchers, instructors, students and general users who rely on the OED and ANB. We expect that this will be the first of many national offerings through the Regional Networks."

Oxford University Press, the world's largest university press, is best known as the publisher of the OED. The Press has recently committed $55 million to the first complete revision of the OED, the most ambitious humanities research endeavor in history, subsidizing the history-making project through its other publishing operations. More than 300 lexicographers, technical staff, readers, and consultants-the largest dictionary team ever assembled-are now reviewing each entry, revising etymologies, rewriting definitions, adding new words and documentary evidence, as well as designing the most elegant interactive dictionary project on the Internet.

Published in print in January 1999, the American National Biography, a collaborative venture with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), is the most comprehensive, authoritative reference source of its kind. The ANB reflects the diversity of the men and women whose stories shaped this nation's history.

The Regional Networks are a group of sixteen independent non-profit organizations serving public and private secondary schools, colleges, and universities, public and state libraries, and non-profit and commercial organizations throughout the United States. The Networks' efforts allow participating institutions to purchase and subscribe to an array of services at greatly reduced prices. North American institutions outside the geographic region of a Network will be able to participate through special arrangements. Further details and developments will be announced periodically.

ABOUT THE NETWORKS

The Regional Networks are sixteen independent organizations serving thousands of institutions including public and private high schools, public and state libraries, academic colleges and universities, non-profit organizations and commercial companies across the United States. The Networks’ efforts allow participating institutions to purchase and subscribe to an array of products and services at greatly reduced prices. Best known for their OCLC cataloging services, the Networks participated in a national subscription through SOLINET to the CIS Academic Universe service.