ACRL/SPARC Negotiation 201 Webcast Series

Expounding on the popular Negotiation 101 Workshops in May and June 2021, ACRL and SPARC are presenting a Negotiation 201 webcast series that will provide one-hour deeper dives into specific concepts of negotiating strategy and how they can be put to use. Each of these webcasts is free and open to library workers at any institution, but registration is required for each.

Zone of Possible Agreement: Researching & Predicting Publishers’ Positions (July 13, 2021, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern): The Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) is where price agreement can happen during a negotiation. This range is between the minimum the seller is willing to sell for and the maximum a buyer is willing to pay. When planning negotiation strategy, predicting your ZOPA can be critical to ensure the best agreement can be reached. While it is easier for libraries to determine your maximum price, estimating an e-resource vendor’s minimum price may feel daunting. This workshop will help provide resources and strategies for trying to determine your ZOPA including strategies such as analyzing historical price increases for your own library, researching pricing at other institutions, and using available market research and competitive intelligence resources to understand drivers for vendor decisions.

Determining BATNA: Analyzing the Value of Packages & A-La-Carte Purchasing (July 29, 2021, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern): BATNA refers to your best alternative to negotiated agreement. It allows you to understand both your walk away point within a deal as well as your alternatives. This workshop will provide strategies and resources for analyzing your journal packages to determine BATNA, discussing how to analyze small packages in Excel using different analysis techniques to determine value. We will also discuss using tools such as Unsub to analyze big deals.

Preparing for No: Understanding Your BATNA, Priorities, and Values (August 19, 2021, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern): What happens when you hear “no” during a negotiation? How should you consider reacting? This workshop will consist of a moderated discussion between panelists who will share their own experiences with handling no during a negotiation, allowing time for questions and discussion from the audience.

Presenter

Katharine Macy is the Collection Assessment Librarian and Subject Liaison to Business & Economics at IUPUI’s University Library. She recently presented on negotiation best practices during the ACRL/SPARC Negotiation 101 workshops in May and June 2021 and presented Negotiate like an MBA at ERL2020. Currently she is serving as one of the co-leads of the Data Analysis Working Group within SPARC’s Journal Negotiation Community of Practice. She has an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and spent over a decade as an analyst which included preparing for and executing negotiations, prior to earning her MLIS and becoming an academic librarian.