In this well-researched monograph, Lamdan traces how these two corporations control legal, academic, and commercial databases, extract immense profits from publicly produced knowledge, and lock institutions into costly, restrictive contracts. For academic libraries and librarians like myself who use these databases and products to support our students and researchers, this resonates immediately.
Escalating journal and database prices are not simply budgetary annoyances; they are symptoms of a cartelized system that treats access to knowledge as a luxury rather than a collective right. Libraries, especially publicly funded ones as the one I am working at, end up paying repeatedly for research produced by scholars whose labour is already subsidized by the public. While academic libraries are opting out of big package deals with the likes of Elsevier, it is certainly not making a dent in the businesses of the data cartels. As long as there is a tenure-track system, academics will continue to publish and sign away their copyrights to journals in Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Taylor & Francis, and be exploited in the process.
If it only costs Elsevier $600 to publish an article and Elsevier makes $4000 from selling it, what happens to the other $3,400?
Sarah Lamdan, Data Cartels
What makes Data Cartels a critical read today is its urgent attention to surveillance. Lamdan documents how data brokers and database vendors increasingly collaborate with U.S. government agencies, like ICE, by allowing personal information to circulate beyond traditional legal safeguards. In this environment, libraries are no longer just access points to information but are potential nodes in surveillance networks. As librarians, we face challenges that test our core professional values regarding user privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent.
As a librarian, I see Data Cartels not merely as a critique but as a call to action. It asks us to rethink licensing practices, advocate for open access, interrogate vendor relationships, and prioritize privacy as a non-negotiable ethical commitment. At a moment when data extraction, market consolidation, and state surveillance are accelerating, I worry whether we are too late to the game. Whereas the Amazons, Googles, and Facebooks of the world are sometimes monitored by the government for antitrust violations, there don’t seem to be the same guardrails in place for these data cartels.
As a librarian, I see Data Cartels not merely as a critique but as a call to action. It asks us to rethink licensing practices, advocate for open access, interrogate vendor relationships, and prioritize privacy as a non-negotiable ethical commitment. At a moment when data extraction, market consolidation, and state surveillance are accelerating, I worry whether we are too late to the game. Whereas the Amazons, Googles, and Facebooks of the world are sometimes monitored by the government for antitrust violations, there don’t seem to be the same guardrails in place for these data cartels.
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