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Re: Restraint of Trade? 

Publishers are in a period of crisis -- largely of their own making.  But
libraries are both now in a no one wins situation.  If the fact that doing
business in Europe is the problem (which it doesn't seem to have been a
problem when the dollar was falling), move to the states.  I have a hard
time feeling sympathy for STM publishers.  At the same time I don't
believe they are an enemy.  I renew my call for publishers to contact me
if you are interested in exploring multiyear consortial pricing for print
journals.  We both need stability.  Libraries are willing to negotiate
their right to cancel for reasonable price increases. 

We know that what publishers are doing (double digit inflation) causes
cancelations and cancelations reduce revenues which lead to double
digit price increases..................

Tony

Anthony W. Ferguson
Associate University Librarian
Columbia University Libraries
Tel. 212-854-2270
Fax. 212-222-0331
Net: ferguson@Columbia.edu

_____________________________
Alan Edelson wrote:

> I knew that my use of those hot button words "restraint of trade" would
> generate ire; that was not my intention. But libraries exist in a free
> market economy that has had to be kept within certain boundaries to
> prevent abuses of that freedom. As usual, such regulations cut both
> ways. Sellers can be guilty of abuse of these regulations, as can
> buyers. I do not mean to imply that libraries already have abused
> anything or anyone; I do think it important that they recognize and
> accept the existence of these boundaries, and seek competent advice when
> gray areas are approached. Sanctimonious statements condemning
> publishers are not constructive. Cooperation --- conducted within the
> boundaries of the regulations--certainly is. Exchanging pricing
> information and mutual concerns should not be a problem. Acting in
> concert to coerce information providers, i.e., publishers, would
> certainly be, to mention one extreme situation that to my knowledge has   
> not yet occurred.                                                         
> 
> Regarding the concern about the rates of rise of journal prices, I            
> wonder how many librarians recognize the forces contributing to them         
> aside from simple greed: e.g., the demand by authors and societies for    
> more pages per volume to provide adequate coverage for the "information   
> explosion", often despite the publishers' warnings about the impact on    
> prices; and, in the case of journals owned by societies but published by  
> commercial publishers, the ever increasing demands by those societies     
> for more and more profits in order to finance the enlarging activities    
> of the societies. In my 30-year experience as a medical publisher these   
> relentless forces are often brought to bear against the reasonable        
> arguments of publishers who may attempt to keep prices more level lest    
> subscriptions decline. In fact, subscriptions for most journals are       
> declining, and publishers are only too aware of the fact that increasing  
> prices are partially responsible. They do not wish to commit suicide.     
> For journal published in Europe, one must also bear in mind that the      
> steep decline of the U.S. dollar has caused the subscription prices of    
> many foreign journals denominated in foreign currencies to increase       
> prodigiously when converted into U.S. currency. Many scholarly and        
> technical journals fall into this category, and their price increases     
> have been painfully obvious to American subscribers. How to expect a      
> foreign publisher to cut prices by fixing US subscriptions in US prices,  
> when printing and mailing costs are incurred in their local currencies,   
> is something I cannot believe is realistic. Finally, it must be           
> recognized that widespread photocopying, and sharing of journals, not to  
> mention electronic sharing, can only push prices higher still, since      
> fixed costs to publishers remain a major portion of the cost structure   
> of a journal, regardless of what technology is used. Dividing these      
> fixed costs among fewer paying subscribers equals higher subscription    
> rates. In summary, do not thing that life today is a bed of roses for    
> scholarly publishers. On the contrary, it is a period of crisis, as it   
> is for libraries.  Alan M. Edelson, Ph.D.


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