RE: Sabo Bill: Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally Financed Research

[Ronna Archbold <RArchbold@epnet.com>]

Good morning Scott!!

Greetings from Iowa - where I've visited a number of "rural" hospitals and
their ONLY source of Fulltext is EBSCO via a state wide deal - they are
paying as low as $300 per month for access to about 1000 journals and not
the Brandon Hill list - but they are THRILLED to have it.

Our ability to "stay in business" is that we now get their CINAHL biz and
they link to the FT via the state and/or they will buy the addition titles
that a license won't permit us to mount on a state wide deal.  On top of
that, IF they have ESS they get some "free" ONLINE with print - and
eventually they do end up with an interesting "assortment" of Fulltext -
linking to PUBMED and "affordable" (a term with WIDE definition).

Ronna Archbold, M.Ed.,  Biomedical Sales Manager; Midwest U.S., Eastern
U.S./Canada 
EBSCO Publishing, 10 Estes Street, Ipswich, MA  01938
Voice - 978/368-6338 or 800/OK-EBSCO X512  
FAX - 978/368-6342  Cellular Phone -  978-821-3015
E-mail - rarchbold@epnet.com

-----Original Message-----
From: T Scott Plutchak [mailto:tscott@uab.edu]
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 9:15 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Sabo Bill: Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally
Financed Research 

Depends on what you mean by "available".  A couple of months ago I had
some correspondence with the chief of staff of a small rural hospital in
western Alabama who is trying to figure out how he and his colleagues can
get access to the latest clinical research.  His hospital is hanging by a
thread financially (as is the case with most hospitals and clinics in
rural America), so subscribing to or licensing everything that he needs is
out of the question.  He has a hard time understanding why, if he's paying
for this research in the first place with his tax dollars, he can't
readily access the results of that research.  I can supply him with copies
of articles through interlibrary loan at $11/each (well, I can in those
cases where the terms of the license don't prevent me from doing that),
once he's figured out exactly what articles he wants to see.  But this is
a miserably inefficient way for him to try to keep up.

This scenario is repeated in every small hospital, clinic and doctor's
office in rural America and in much of the inner city.  Don't tell these
health care practioners that this stuff is "already available" and that
their concern for giving their patients the best care possibile is a
"tempest in a teapot."

T. Scott Plutchak
Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham

tscott@uab.edu