AAA Freezes Journal Subscription Dues

[Sharon Stein <sstein@aaanet.org>]

American Anthropological Association Freezes Journal Subscription 
Dues

Group Responds to Financial Pressure on Library Subscribers

Today, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) announced 
that its Executive Board voted to freeze 2010 subscription rates 
for all of its journals in an effort to respond to the concerns 
of their primary subscribers.

At a time where librarians are worried about the current economic 
recession and are tightening their budgets, the AAA took swift 
action to respond to the need of their primary constituents. 
Today's action also includes the freezing of rates for 
AnthroSource, the AAA supported premier online portal providing 
access to over 100 years of anthropological knowledge.

"AAA is committed to listening to our resource partners, and this 
step by the Executive Board proves that," AAA Executive Director 
Bill Davis said in a statement released today. "We take very 
seriously our responsibility to make anthropological knowledge as 
accessible as possible, and will do everything in our power to 
ensure that researchers, students and others continue to explore 
the depths of this wonderful discipline."

Academic librarians nationwide are expressing concern about their 
given the current economic crisis and the reduction in federal, 
state and local funding for their operations, AAA is committed to 
ensuring that as many libraries as possible continue to have 
access to anthropological research published in its 22 
publications, including the American Anthropologist, American 
Ethnologist, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Cultural 
Anthropology, Ethos, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Although the association is freezing prices, AAA and its 
publishing partner, Wiley-Blackwell, continue to make investments 
in the aforementioned journals and AnthroSource..

Wiley-Blackwell has invested in a massive retrodigitization 
project, which will consolidate all AAA content on a single 
platform and add more than 900 articles to AnthroSource as well 
as four decades of Anthropology News. New content now appears in 
full-text, full-searchable HTML as well as PDF format, and 
editors have the option to publish figures in color online. 
Plans are also underway for new online features including 
supporting materials (e.g. datasets, translations), online 
discussions linked to content, and podcasts.  .

To help ensure underresourced communities can access the content, 
the AAA and Wiley-Blackwell also continue to make our content 
available for free or at a reduced cost in the developing world 
via philanthropic programs such as HINARI, OARE, INASP. and 
AGORA, and offer free access to AnthroSource to U.S. Tribal 
Colleges, U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 
Canadian Arctic Colleges and Canadian First Nation Colleges.

For more information, please contact Oona Schmid, AAA Director of 
Publishing at (703) 528-1902 x 1174 , or via electronic mail at 
oschmid@aaanet.org.

Regards,

Sharon Stein
Assistant to the Director of Publishing
American Anthropological Association
2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22201
sstein@aaanet.org