Free Lunch? Vendor Offers during COVID-19

Abstract

Academic libraries received numerous free offers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing business literature suggests that there are benefits and costs associated with free offers for both the businesses that provide them and their customers. This study analyzes the free offers received during a three-month period at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The author monitored direct offers from vendors, LIBLICENSE-L@LISTSERV.CRL.EDU, information obtained from peers, and publicly available data from the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). The offers that would normally require paid institutional subscriptions were included in the study. Databases were the largest offer category (41%), followed-by e-books (20%). Most (76%) required registration by library representatives, allowing vendors to track usage data. Only a small portion (8%) of these free offers was already held at the study site, Penn State University Libraries (PSUL). The implication might be that most of the offers were either new, not high-priority or not affordable for PSUL. The findings of this study suggest free offers provide intangible value for both libraries and vendors that cannot be measured through cost-per-use data analysis. For example, libraries gained opportunities to trial new products without any risk, temporarily expand their collections, and help users during the crisis when access to the library buildings was disrupted. Vendors increased product visibility, gained customer information and usage data, identified potential customers, and created goodwill with the library community. This study is relevant to business librarianship not only because these free offers included business and related disciplines but also because some business librarians engage with vendor relations and need to understand different business models including free offers.

COVID-19 data representation in business databases

“…Breeding (2020) summarizes examples of hubs created by vendors that aggregated COVID-19 content and provided access to health-related scholarly content and resources, including gratis access to nonsubscribers in many cases. A study on the plentiful vendor offers during the first few months of the pandemic evaluated the length of access, among other factors, finding that many were initially offered for Spring 2020 but that 28 percent were extended as the pandemic waged on (Hosoi, 2021). Many libraries maintained lists of available content on their websites and LibGuides and utilized community-run resources like "Vendor Love in the Time of COVID-19" to track offers from publishers and vendors (University Information Policy Officers, 2020).…”