RE: 10% price rollback for SPIE Digital Library

["Hamaker, Charles" <cahamake@uncc.edu>]

This is evidence that at least one publisher understands the 
challenges of financing acquisitions for libraries and how 
serious the issues are for libraries and publishers together. 0% 
increases are not enough for the extreme situation libraries 
face.

A May presentation by the Fiscal Research Division of the North 
Carolina General Assembly in looking at the fiscal outlook over 
the next few years says that revised consensus numbers suggests 
if normal long-term growth resumes in 2011-12, then it will be 
2013-14 before revenues equal the state budget numbers of 2008-09 
again.

http://www.ncleg.net/fiscalresearch/generalfund_outlook/generalfund_outlook.shtml 
(select Revised Revenue and Budget Outlook, May 6, 2009,)

We are in for a long hard time and as the ICOLC and NERL 
statements indicate it's time for a major reset of prices. 
Hopefully SPIE's decision will be an example to other publishers 
that it's now time to consider significant changes in their 
pricing models.

Chuck Hamaker

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Carol Hoover
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 6:32 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: 10% price rollback for SPIE Digital Library

As a member of the SPIE Library Advisory Panel, I am pleased to
forward this message for SPIE.

SPIE
Bellingham, Washington USA
3 June 2009

Announcement: 10% price rollback for SPIE Digital Library

SPIE is pleased to announce a 10% rollback in pricing for 
institutional subscriptions to the SPIE Digital Library for 2010. 
This action comes as the result of a year-long study involving 
numerous librarians and researchers and supports the Society's 
commitment to enabling the broadest possible dissemination of 
information to the worldwide optics and photonics community.

"As a not-for-profit educational society, SPIE strives to meet 
its responsibility to consider the economic challenges facing the 
educational and research community," said SPIE Executive Director 
Eugene Arthurs.  "In the current global economic climate, SPIE 
realizes that libraries are faced with tighter budgets than ever 
before for acquiring needed resources."

A combination of careful stewardship and steady growth of the 
subscription base since the launch of the SPIE Digital Library in 
2003 are enabling the Society to roll back prices without 
reducing services, features, or content, Arthurs said. "Through 
this price decrease, we hope to enable access to this information 
for many more researchers, students, and inventors around the 
world."

The 10% price reduction applies to subscriptions to the full SPIE 
Digital Library, which includes the Proceedings of SPIE and all 
SPIE Journals, and to topical segment subscriptions. It does not 
apply to consortia arrangements, for which customized discounts 
are already applied, or to subscriptions to single SPIE Journals. 
However, 2010 prices for consortia will be frozen at 2009 rates.

Additionally, the new pricing will be fixed through 2012 for 
those subscribers who sign a three-year license commitment by 
September 2009. Looking beyond 2010, SPIE plans to continue to 
seek ways to moderate price increases and potentially continue 
rollbacks as our subscriber base grows.

Along with the 10% price rollback, SPIE is introducing new 
pricing options aimed at enabling access for institutions with 
smaller research budgets, as well as larger institutions with 
limited engineering programs.

SPIE is continuing to enhance its Digital Library with new types 
of content. SPIE eBooks will be available as an option to 
libraries beginning this August and will include frontlist, 
midlist, and backlist collections, all with perpetual access. Two 
new journals, SPIE Reviews and Photonics for Energy and the 
Environment, also have been announced and are planned to launch 
later this year.

Learn more about the SPIE Digital Library online at

<http://www.dlinfo.org/home.aspx>

Additional details about the price rollback can be found at
<http://www.dlinfo.org/pricerollbackqa.aspx>

SPIE is the international optics and photonics society, founded 
in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 
188,000 constituents from 138 countries, the Society advances 
emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information 
exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, 
and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organizes and 
sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, 
and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the 
South Pacific. In 2008, the Society provided more than $1.9 
million in support of scholarships, grants, and other education 
programs around the world. For more information, visit 
<http://spie.org/>

For more information contact:

Marybeth Manning, SPIE Digital Library
marybeth@spie.org

Please feel free to forward this announcement.

***