Thoughts around journal pricing?

[Thomas Vale <thomas.vale2@googlemail.com>]

Hi guys,

I hope everyone's keeping well. I'm doing a bit of research in 
trying to understand library budgets and journals etc. One of the 
things that continually amazes me is the extent to which "paid" 
journals work vs open access (a topic which has been well 
addressed during the Open access week here in Cambridge).

That aside, I did wonder if anyone had any thoughts about 
journals and pricing. It seems to me that despite the economic 
downturn effecting library budgets, some of the biggest 
publishers are still looking for significant price increases both 
on print and electronic (the best I've heard of is flat 
pricing...). Is that right? If so how can libraries respond?

Any thoughts/viewpoints would be much appreciated.

Tom