Re: FW: Nature Questions

[Philip Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Nature is basing their institutional pricing on FTE counts, which makes
sense if you have a product that has (potential) use by the entire
university community.  In large multidisciplinary universities that
include arts, social sciences, humanities and sciences, libraries are
faced with a pricing model that assumes that everyone will use their
journal, when in actuality, only a fraction of its users are potential
Nature readers.

It therefore makes a lot of sense why small medical college libraries are
the only takers to the Nature deal.  Medical libraries serve small user
base with a potential reader base of nearly 100%.  I don't blame these
libraries who have taken advantage of Nature's deal....for them its a good
deal.

That said, it doesn't make the issue of purchasing an abridged publication
any easier to swallow.....

---Phil
Philip Davis, Life Sciences Bibliographer
Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-7192 ;  (607) 255-0318 fax
pmd8@cornell.edu