RE: charge for CD-ROM site licensing

["Peter Picerno" <ppicerno@nova.edu>]

I would have to agree that back issues on a CD-ROM are a pretty useless
commodity: they represent cataloging/storage/retrieval/use problems and in
my experience few users will take the time and bother to fiddle with a CD,
and if articles are available through other means such as ILL or document
delivery they will remain the procurement methods of choice for those
seeking a specific article. The publishers would be wiser to establish a
digital archive available on the WWW (which would then justify a site
license), or maybe they should throw their hat into the JSTOR/Project Muse
ring. I would be hard pressed to be able to justify a site license for a
CD-ROM product (which most of us tend to think of as one-time capital
purchases, anyway). But, of course, these are only my opinions, and I'll
be interested to see what other takes on the subject are.

Peter Picerno

Dr. Peter V. Picerno
Acquisitions and Serials Librarian
Nova Southeastern University Libraries
3100 Ray Ferrero Jr Blvd
Fort Lauderdale   FL   33314-7796
(954) 262-4662
FAX (954) 262-3946

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 8:12 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: charge for CD-ROM site licensing

According to their web site, they are presently selling it, or trying to,
for $100, to current members only--current membership costs $150 for a
institutional member and $95 for a personal member.  The current quarterly
issues seem to be available only in print. The value of a site license for
an online version of their journal, including current issues, might well
be worth a little more than the current annual institutional price.
There is little value in a CD of the backfile, single-user or
site-licensed, while the current issues are not available electronically.
I cannot imagine any market except for those who lack back volumes--and
then a single-user version would do.  As biology selector I sometimes
receive such disks free; they go in a storage cabinet, uncataloged.  It is
a shame they did not ask some questions before adopting an outmoded
technology.  In that context their name does sound a little ironic.

Dr. David Goodman
Princeton University
and
Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University
dgoodman@princeton.edu