Re: Usage-based pricing (was ebooks in libraries a thorny problem)

["Elizabeth E. Kirk" <elizabeth.e.kirk@Dartmouth.EDU>]

Sandy,

Generally, it's free printing that is limited (certainly the case 
at Dartmouth) or, more precisely, subsidized. After that, one 
prints but pays.

Best,

Elizabeth E. Kirk
Associate Librarian for Information Resources
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA 03753
elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Thatcher" <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 4:31 PM
Subject: Re: Usage-based pricing (was ebooks in libraries a thorny problem)

> While not quite the same thing, do not some libraries, or 
> university computer centers, limit the number of pages a 
> student may print out per month or semester or year? I've heard 
> that Brown University, among others, follows such a rationing 
> practice. Is this "madness"?
>
> Sandy Thatcher
>
>>Eric Hellman wrote:
>>
>>Usage based pricing only provides a disincentive to use if the
>>price is paid by the user. Viewed from the provider side, it
>>provides exactly the right incentives- you should want providers
>>to make resources that users want to use. The trick, of course is
>>how to control the top-line of the budget.
>>
>>Comment:
>>
>>Usage based pricing, by definition, means that someone is paying
>>by the usage, and hence there is incentive to limit usage.
>>
>>Let's go back to the scenario of libraries purchasing ebooks on a
>>usage-based pricing.  Let's say this model becomes the norm.
>>The library's ebook budget then becomes x dollars to cover x
>>uses.  What happens when the budget is cut, or the cost per use
>>increases more than the library budget?  The library would have
>>to ration usage, or pass the costs along to users (which brings
>>the direct disincentive to usage that you mention).  It is very
>>easy to imagine the same kind of vicious cycle that we have seen
>>with the serials crisis, i.e. if libraries ration reading or
>>users curtail their reading, vendors are likely to increase
>>per-usage cost since their costs are covered by fewer uses,
>>resulting in further rationing of reading, and so on.
>>
>>This is madness with scholarly knowledge in electronic form,
>>which is nonrivalrous in nature.  Once a copy in electronic form
>>is available over the internet, costs for additional uses are
>>virtually nonexistent.
>>
>>Usage-based pricing as an alternative is a strong argument for open
>>access.
>>
>>Heather Morrison, MLIS
>>http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/