Negotiation Planning Part 3

Approximate time to complete: 4-5 hours total. About 2 hours to review the material and 2-3 hours to complete the activity.

Learning objectives:

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Find vendor information including financial information and publicly available pricing data.
• Understand how to interpret financial information in order to predict the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) during negotiations.

Table of Contents:

• Watch, Listen, or Read
  • External Review
  • Finding Financial Data
• Review: Resources
  • Librarian’s Guide to Understanding Library Publisher Financial Data
  • LOC Research Guide: Form 990
• Watch, Listen, or Read
  • Understanding Financial Data
• Check Your Understanding Quiz
• Review: Application within Libraries
  • What is Driving Publisher’s Strategy and Actions
  • Library Journal Periodicals Price Survey
• Do: Research A Vendor
  • Exercise 1: Finding Vendor Annual Reports & 990’s
  • Exercise 2: Finding Financial Information in the Annual Report and 990 of a Non-Profit Publisher
• Do: Negotiation Journal Reflection
• Helpful Tools & Readings
• Group Activities & Discussion

WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ:

Review the following video content in order, since the content builds. Videos are provided through YouTube. The notes in the PowerPoint slides correspond with the transcript of the videos.

• Uncovering Vendor’s Interests (9:52) (PowerPoint with Notes)
  • Resources listed in this video:
    • SPARC “Big Deal Knowledge Base” 
    • SPARC “Serials Transparency List”
    • Thornton, J.B. & Brundy, C. (2021). Elsevier Title Level Pricing: Dissecting the Bowl of Spaghetti. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 9(General Issue), eP2410. https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.241

• Finding Financial Data (10:53) (PowerPoint with Notes)
  • Resources listed in this video:
    • EDGAR 
    • Guidestar
    • Propublica Nonprofit Explorer 
    • SPARC Landscape Analysis 

REVIEW: Resources

• Macy, K. (2021) “Librarian’s Guide to Understanding Scholarly Publisher Financial Data” 
• LOC Research Guide: Form 990

WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ:

• Understanding Financial Data (17:51) (PowerPoint with Notes)

Check Your Understanding Quiz

Take this short quiz to check your understanding of ideas presented in the videos. Feel free to go back and review the videos as needed.

REVIEW: Application within Libraries

• SPARC Future of Digital Research & Learning Infrastructure “What is driving publishers’ strategy and actions”
• Bosch, S., Romaine, S., Albee, B., & Elliott, C. M. (2023, April 11) “Library Journal Periodicals Price Survey” 

DO: Research a Vendor

These exercises are also found in the Foundations Workbook (docx download, PDF download).

Exercise 1: Finding Vendor Annual Reports & 990s.

• • Exercise Instructions 
  • Answer Key

Exercise 2: Finding financial information in the annual report and 990 of a non-profit publisher.

• • Step-by-Step Written Instructions
  • Analyzing Financial Information of a Non-profit Publisher Spreadsheet Template
  • Annual Report
  • 990
  • Answer Key
  • Video Tutorial – Analyzing Annual Report (19:44) (Transcript)
  • Video Tutorial – Analyzing The Form 990 (17:20) (Transcript)

DO: Negotiation Journal Reflection

When reviewing the materials in this lesson, what did you find that was particularly interesting? How does understanding financial trends within the publishing industry, as well as for a company help you approach negotiations? After completing this lesson do you feel more comfortable with finding and evaluating financial information? Why are you more comfortable or less comfortable? 

Helpful Tools & Readings

• SPARC “Future of Digital Research & Learning Infrastructure including SPARC Landscape Analysis” 

Group Activities & Discussion

If the curriculum is being completed by a group these activities can help the group learn together. (docx download) (pdf download)