June 10, 2024
Dear Dean Bird and Associate Dean Jordan,
We, members of SFU Faculty for Palestine, are writing to ask SFU Library to terminate the Library’s contract with Ex Libris.
Ex Libris (Clarivate) is an Israeli library technology company headquartered in Malha Technology Park in southwestern Jerusalem.
The Park sits on the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village al-Maliha. During the Nakba of 1948, Zionist forces attacked al-Maliha on July 15, forcibly displacing the 2250 inhabitants.
Ex Libris’ products are used in thousands of Canadian and American libraries, including SFU. SFU alone has paid over $2.5 million to Ex Libris for its Integrated Library System (front and back end of the library catalogue) since 2017.
SFU’s payments to Ex Libris materially support Israel’s apartheid, continued colonization, and the occupation of Palestine. The money we pay for our library catalogue is contributing to the dispossession and plausible genocide of Palestinian people.
The Israeli tech industry contributes significantly to Israel's economy–Israel is home to more tech startups and attracts more venture capital per capita than any other nation in the world. This is coupled with the close ties fostered between the tech sector and the military. In particular, Unit 8200 cyber security corps of the Israel Defense Forces, noted for their use of AI systems to “augment” the military’s target selection, acts as a “conveyor belt” for engineers, data scientists, and other skilled technologists into private companies developing everything from covert weapons to library technologies.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law. The BDS Movement calls for boycotts that “involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.”
Libraries have the power to decide where and how to allocate their resources. Alternative integrated library systems (e.g. EBSCO FOLIO) and their requisite components are available and used in major libraries such as the Library of Congress, Michigan State University, and others. Given the relentless targeting of cultural heritage sites, universities, libraries, and archives in Gaza, we are calling on the SFU Library to take action. Choosing not to have Ex Libris in our library is one of the most significant and material actions we can take to heed the BDS Movement’s call for freedom, justice, and equality.
Sincerely,
SFU Faculty for Palestine
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Response from SFU Library
June 24, 2024
Dear Faculty for Palestine SFU,
Thank you for reaching out with concerns regarding SFU’s subscription to Ex Libris software. We share your deep concern about the actions of the Israeli military against civilians in Gaza, but after careful consideration and deliberation, we do not agree that SFU’s software contract with Ex Libris is supporting the Israeli military, or colonization and occupation in Palestine as you assert.
The mission of the SFU Library is to enhance teaching and learning, foster research and provide instructional services for SFU students, faculty and staff. All of our work, including procurement and software acquisition, is done with this mission in mind.
The library licensed software from Ex Libris US (Chicago, Illinois) in 2016 following a thorough and extensive public procurement process. The global company is based in the UK and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with more than 12,000 employees around the world. SFU’s decision to subscribe to Ex Libris software-as-a-service was based on its merits as a resource for our academic community. Since then, the software has enhanced our ability to facilitate research, provide access to academic journals, and manage library resources effectively.
SFU Procurement has advised us that terminating a contract as a form of protest exposes SFU to considerable legal risk. In addition, BC law does not allow discrimination against suppliers as a form of protest. According to the BC and SFU procurement frameworks, if we did seek a new Library Services Platform vendor it would again have to be via public RFP, and we could not exclude Ex Libris simply because some of their global offices are based in Israel.
We have taken considerable time to discuss the ethical issues surrounding library procurement with the library administration group both in response to your letter, and prior to receiving it. We have raised these questions with our peers at other research libraries in Canada, and plan to continue the discussions within the library community and with SFU Procurement. Thank you again for bringing your concerns to our attention.
Sincerely,
Gwen Bird & Mark Jordan
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F4P Response to SFU Library
August 22, 2024
Dear Dean Bird and Associate Dean Jordan,
We are reaching out regarding your correspondence of June 24, 2024 to ask for an update and request additional information, and to provide some clarification of our position.
We thank you for your concern about the Israeli military’s campaign against the population of Gaza. The mass killing, starvation, and torture faced by Gazans necessitate a bold commitment to the BDS movement’s principled nonviolent tactics from all segments of civil society, including academic libraries. As faculty of conscience who are committed to heeding Palestinian Civil Society’s call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, we reject claims that seek to distort the obvious links between the Israeli military and the flow of capital, labour, and expertise that props up and maintains an apartheid ideology that has culminated in the unconscionable murder of Palestinians over the past ten months.
In your response to us, you shared that you both "plan to continue the discussions within the library community and with SFU Procurement." We are interested to hear how these discussions have progressed. What additional information has SFU Procurement provided? Whom within the library community have you spoken with? We look forward to learning more.
In your letter, you reference BC Law and SFU "procurement frameworks" that prevent the library from boycotting Ex Libris. The stated purpose of the SFU Purchasing Policy is “to ensure that the University obtains the best value for its expenditures while ensuring that all procurements and procurement processes are characterized by the highest level of institutional and personal integrity.” The policy does not state that ethical and moral considerations cannot be a metric of assessment during a competitive bidding process. Additionally, the University Act appears silent on procurement. The BC government’s Core Policy and Procedures Manual provides guidance on procurement and does not appear to limit evaluation criteria in any way. Rather, it highlights that the criteria must be provided to every bidder and that the stated criteria must be used to select the bidder. So we can better understand your assertion that there are legal and policy reasons that prevent the library from not renewing its contract with Ex Libris, could you please provide the names and citations of the procurement laws, policies and frameworks mentioned in your letter?
Additionally, you reference contract termination in your letter. It is our understanding that the contractual relationship between SFU Library and Ex Libris is on an annual renewal basis. This suggests that contract termination is not required, as non-renewal is an option. You note that "if we did seek a new Library Services Platform vendor it would again have to be via public RFP, and we could not exclude Ex Libris." While Ex Libris would be able to submit to any RFP, SFU and the Library are able to include social and ethical procurement metrics to assess products and services. If a company does not meet those metrics in any open-bid process, then the Library does not select that company.
You shared that you "do not agree that SFU’s software contract with Ex Libris is supporting the Israeli military, or colonization and occupation in Palestine." We highlight again that Ex Libris is an Israeli library technology company headquartered in Malha Technology Park in southwestern Jerusalem. The Park sits on the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village al-Maliha. During the Nakba of 1948, Zionist forces attacked al-Maliha on July 15, forcibly displacing the 2,250 inhabitants. We also highlight that the Israeli tech industry contributes significantly to Israel's economy and has close ties to its military – Israel is home to more tech startups and attracts more venture capital per capita than any other nation in the world.
Moreover, you point out that SFU Library's relationship is with a global company based in the UK. Other boycott campaigns, such as the widespread and successful campaign against apartheid in South Africa, included an international boycott of South African products that encompassed those sold in international markets by multinational firms. In a similar way multinationals such as Puma, Carrefour, and HP are all targets of the ongoing BDS movement due to their economic ties to Israel. Despite being part of a multinational conglomerate, Ex Libris, as an Israeli-founded and Israeli-headquartered company, falls within the scope of the BDS movements for the reasons we mentioned in our initial letter (June 10, 2024), including its ties to the apartheid state of Israel that is currently carrying out plausible genocide against the people of Gaza as acknowledged by the International Court of Justice and countless human rights organisations. The goal of the BDS campaign is to pressure Israel to comply with international law, and this includes the use of economic pressure.
SFU Faculty for Palestine would welcome an opportunity to meet with you to discuss the Library’s contract with Ex Libris, learn about your discussions within the library community following from our original letter, and gain more insight into the procurement and legal frameworks mentioned above. We think it would be valuable to have us at the table to hear first-hand the concerns, issues, and possible paths forward. Please let us know if a meeting can be arranged. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
SFU Faculty for Palestine
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Response from SFU Library
Sep 18, 2024
Dear colleagues,
We will be pleased to meet with you to respond to the questions in your August 22 letter. We would prefer an in-person meeting if that is possible for you. If not, we can meet virtually.
Please work with Susie Smith in my office to arrange a time. She can be reached at libsec@sfu.ca. Once the meeting is booked, please let us know who will attend on behalf of your group. We look forward to the discussion.
Gwen & Mark
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F4P Response to SFU Library
October 9, 2024
Dear Dean Bird and Associate Dean Jordan,
We are writing regarding your corresponce of September 18, 2024. Thank you for your willingness to meet with us to discuss the Library's contract with Ex Libris. We are looking forward to it.
Prior to finding a meeting time, we would like to reiterate our questions regarding the legal and procurement frameworks you raised in your June 24, 2024 correspondence. For your reference, we are reproducing the relevant paragraph from our August 22, 2024 response below:
In your letter, you reference BC Law and SFU "procurement frameworks" that prevent the library from boycotting Ex Libris. The stated purpose of the SFU Purchasing Policy is “to ensure that the University obtains the best value for its expenditures while ensuring that all procurements and procurement processes are characterized by the highest level of institutional and personal integrity.” The policy does not state that ethical and moral considerations cannot be a metric of assessment during a competitive bidding process. Additionally, the University Act appears silent on procurement. The BC government’s Core Policy and Procedures Manual provides guidance on procurement and does not appear to limit evaluation criteria in any way. Rather, it highlights that the criteria must be provided to every bidder and that the stated criteria must be used to select the bidder. So we can better understand your assertion that there are legal and policy reasons that prevent the library from not renewing its contract with Ex Libris, could you please provide the names and citations of the procurement laws, policies and frameworks mentioned in your letter?
In order for us to have a mutually meaningful conversation on this issue, we would like to have the information you reference ahead of time. Could you please provide us with the names and citations of the procurement laws, policies and frameworks mentioned in your June 24, 2024 correspondence? We are keen to attend with an appropriate understanding of the purported barriers to the Library's non-renewal of the Ex Libris contract.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
SFU Faculty for Palestine
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Response from SFU Library
October 11, 2024
Dear colleagues,
My term as dean ends today so I will pass my notes, including those from our consultations with SFU Procurement, along to my successor, Gohar Ashoughian. Please arrange through the library management office to book your meeting with her after November 15 once she has begun her appointment.
kind regards,
Gwen