Re: The Fall and Rise of the Subscription Model

[Tim Rogers <tim@nclive.org>]

After reading your message ... and leafing it in with what's on 
my mp3 player (Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Everything"), 
the model is and has been going through a slow evolution (we've 
been talking about some this since I was in library school -- you 
know, in the days when we still called it "library school") with 
jerks and starts of mutation as technology and the outside world 
enable it ... as you said ... the model will remain, but what we 
use it for will change ... Thanks, Ann!

Tim Rogers

Executive Director
NC LIVE

E: tim@nclive.org
W: http://www.nclive.org
NCSU Campus Box 7111
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111


On 11/10/2011 11:32 PM, Ann Okerson wrote:
> (Title with thanks to "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perin," a
> British series worth a rental if you don't know it already)
>
> Dear Readers, today I had the good fortune to be on an NFAIS
> panel about the "Erosion of the Subscription Model."  My last
> slide thanked all the liblicense-l contributors to the
> subscription discussion thread, as you helped me formulate my
> thoughts for the session.
>
> My beginning and end point was that the subscription is very much
> alive and well -- however, we are applying the word to a much
> more diverse range of "seriality" than simple journal
> subscriptions.  Here's my closing slide.
>
> As you will gather, I think the subscription is very much alive
> and well.
>
> Cordially,
> Ann Okerson
>
> *************
>
> SO, WHERE ARE JOURNAL CANCELLATION $$ GOING?
>
> To
>
> * Reduce the acquisitions budget
> * Pay for subscription price increases
> * Pay for annual memberships
> * Pay for annual database fees
> * Pay for annual e-book packages
> * Pay for supporting *services* [improve access to content]
> * Pay for experimentation with new business models [e.g., OA, SCOAP3, etc
> * Pay for faculty purchases of articles?
>
>   ...A subscription by any other name...