Re: Who is the subscriber

[David Shumaker <dshumakr@erols.com>]

I have to disagree with the assertion that maintaining current (or higher)
pricing for any given library is necessarily sound economics. Henry Ford
lowered the price of automobiles and thereby dramatically increased the
size of the market. Have publishers considered the possibility that lower
prices and licensee-friendly terms might increase the size of _their_
market?

The analogy to labor markets is flawed, Rick, because the publisher can
"sell" the same information over and over, but you can't sell the same
block of your time over and over.

	--David Shumaker

___________________

Rick Anderson wrote:
> 
> David says:
> 
> > We all know that most large publishers, etc. are basing their pricing
> > strategy upon ensuring that any given library will never be able to pay
> > them less than they currently do now <...>
> 
> Of course they are.  That's because they're doing their best to behave in
> an economically rational manner.  By the same token, you can bet that I'll
> do whatever I can to ensure that UNCG doesn't ever start paying me less
> than it currently does now.
> 
> --------
> Rick Anderson
> Head Acquisitions Librarian
> Jackson Library
> UNC Greensboro
> (336) 334-5281
> rick_anderson@uncg.edu
> 
> "If you enjoy, you understand;
> if you understand, you enjoy...
> To like a football game is to
> understand it in the football way."
>        -- Gertrude Stein