RE: BIOSIS/ZR to be sold?

[Michele Newberry <fclmin@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu>]

A number of years ago a Biosis rep made a presentation at ICOLC.  At that
time, a number of consortia reps said that there was a vast, untapped
market for their product if they could develop a pricing model that would
allow consortia to license the product on behalf of all of their members
regardless of size and type.  To do this, would require breaking away from
their "one-price fits all and it presumes that you also have a lot of the
print backfiles to even get in the door" policy.

The response was an adamant refusal to consider any alternatives.  When
told that this position essentially meant that they had exhausted the
market in most states because there were no more VERY LARGE libraries left
to buy their products, the answer was, to paraphrase "tough cookies - we
don't need anyone but the VERY LARGE libraries".  I wouldn't presume to
say that Biosis would be in a different position today if they had heeded
our suggestion, but I do know that there would be many more college
graduates who would now be working professionals with an appreciation for
the value of this resource if they could have had access to it for all of
these years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Newberry
Assistant Director for Library Services
Florida Center for Library Automation
5830 NW 39th Avenue
Gainesville, FL  32606

352-392-9020
353-392-9185 (fax)
email: fclmin@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu