Delft, 25 October 1998

The Board of the Netherlands Information Managers Combine wishes to endorse the ICOLC 'Statement of current perspective and preferred practices for the selection and purchase of electronic information' of 25 March 1998.

The Netherlands Information Managers Combine (NIC Foundation) is a legally registered organization with the aim to promote the efficient provision of advanced information services through the Information Centres/Libraries in the members' respective organisations by such means as informal discussions, studies and benchmarking.

Members of the NIC are 9 large multinational industrial companies, 3 research institutes and 3 (technical) Universities, a listing is attached as an Annex.

Although we do realise that the Statement has its primary relevant for University libraries, the interests of industrial companies are also at stake if they present trend in printed journal subscription prices continues and the access conditions for electronic publications do not enable or permit new solutions to deliver targeted information directly at the employees' desks at a reasonable price.

All items stated in the paragraphs of the Statement about Contract negotiations, Pricing, Access, archiving, systems and licences, Content, management data and use, and Authentication are equally applicable to the industrial and research members of our organisation as to the academic community that your primarily represent.

We do hope sincerely that the statement will contribute to a new dialogue between information providers and user communities, and that the results will equally benefit all these communities, be it academic or industrial.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. G. Bijster
Chairman NIC

Mr. Ch. L. Citroen
Secretary NIC

Members of the Information Managers Combine as of 1 August 1998 are the libraries of the following organisations:

Akzo Nobel Central Research B.V.
DMV International N.V.
DSM Research
Gist-brocades N.V.
Hoogovens Research B.V.
Oce Nederland B.V.
Philips Research Laboratories (Natuurkundig Laboratorium)
Quest International B.V.
Shell Inernational Exploration & Production B.V.
Unilever Research Laboratory
National Aerospace Laboratory, NLR-The Netherlands
Netherlands Energy Research Foundation
Netherlands Inst. For Scientific Information Services
Delft University of Technology
Eindhoven University of Technology
University of Twente

The address for correspondence is:
NIC Foundation
Delft University Library
P.O. Box 98
2600 MG Delft
Netherlands
Email: ch.citroen@library.tudelft.nl