RE: One library or many?

["Smith, Becky" <becky@uiuc.edu>]

Joe,

For print repositories, I think we need more than one library, especially
when we are putting the burdens on private institutions, who may feel the
need to charge more than for the usual ILL (if they get those in the
agreements) to cover the cost.  While it is a revenue source for some, it
may be sadly the only one.  One copy is not enough, especially if we go
for only e-journals, less print for costs, but yet little has been done
for directories historically.  I think our responsibility as e-banks can
be a good one, otherwise allow Thomson, Elsevier, Sage, Springer, to get
all of the archival costs for rental, unless you buy backfiles. Then what
if of those publishers one sells the other; will that be part of the
assets of the M & A, and will people pay more or keep what they have?

Old questions, but they revolve.  I'm still concerned about SS/business
directories, which no one worries about, but I do, considering I am
cancelling several this year. What about paper Annual Reports, which CRL
has rejected with no interest of storing, yet they are valuable for
history, especially governance and strategy that only contained in those
reports.  What about pics in those reports? Thus, who will keep the very
dark archives? What agreements? I'm still working on that w/my consortia;
perhaps many of you can raise the same issue.  To reinterate, company
histories are very important not only for governance patterns, but
community users who have a specialized product that traces decades ago who
need information about it and its potential value.  Pub Libs try to keep
this, but think about ad history, history of technology (consumer
durables), etc.

My comments/questions are of my own and not of my consortium.

Becky Smith
Head of the Business & Economics and Labor Libraries (BELLs)
ABLD Consortia
becky@uiuc.edu

________________________________

From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Joseph J. Esposito
Sent: Tue 9/14/2004 4:18 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: One library or many?

>To me, it seems obvious that the day when the world's scholarly,
>peer-reviewed literature can easily be stored by each and every library 
>in the world -- a wise move to ensure its ready access and preservation - 
>is within reach, if indeed it is not here already.

JE:  Why "stored by each and every library"?  If it's on the Internet, you
only need one library.  That's a huge savings for cash-strapped
universities.

Joe Esposito