Maximizing Access through Consortial Partnership: Mississippi State University Libraries' Journal Expansion Project

Consortial licenses with online access clauses can offer libraries the opportunity to begin new journal subscriptions at no additional cost and without losing access to existing subscriptions. Mississippi State University (MSU) participates in consortial partnerships that provide online access to all Elsevier and Wiley journals to which any partner subscribes. The license agreements prohibit simply canceling duplicate subscriptions, but they allow any library to swap existing subscriptions for titles of equal cost. In 2006, librarians realized MSU was paying for access that it would retain regardless of whether it maintained subscriptions because many subscriptions were duplicated with partner libraries. This article describes a project that allowed MSU to provide online access to an additional sixty journals at no increased subscription costs.