our rights to have download/usage stats for databases

I am sorry I didn’t link to this earlier, but Anna Creech’s back and forth exchange with one of their journal vendors should be a reminder that it’s very important for libraries to advocate for their own best interests, and those of their patrons. When a library’s desires conflict with publishers desires — as in this case where Anna’s library wants download/usage statistics and the publisher does not want to provide them — we need to remember that we are the customer and it’s totally appropriate for us to make sure that the products we’re purchasing are being used. We shouldn’t have to survey our own users to see if and how our databases are being used, that data should be available for us to be able to make informed purchasing decisions with.