RE: Fascinating quotation

["T Scott Plutchak" <tscott@uab.edu>]

I don't think Mark suggested that "medical libraries never discontinue
periodicals."  As he has emphasized, he is speaking strictly about the
potential impact of the NIH proposal on medical libraries' possible
cancellations.

Medical libraries will discontinue periodicals for many reasons. However,
the point that I believe that Mark was making is that it is extremely
unlikely that the NIH proposal itself will create a condition that will
lead to cancellations.  David's hypotheticals don't apply. Few, if any,
biomedical periodicals publish 90% NIH-funded work; and there is little,
if any, NIH-funded work in the philosophy journals.

It is quite possible that the various open access experiments will lead to
conditions that will cause biomedical libraries to cancel subscriptions.  
The NIH proposal, in its current form, is not one of them.

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