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Re: Science Online 

Again, the ONLY recourse we, as librarians, have is not to purchase the 
product.  If enough of us "boycott" products with excessive restrictions 
then the publishers at some point will have to take notice.  Perhaps the 
American Academy for the Advancement of Science should change its name to 
American Academy for the Restriction of Information Dissemination.

Tom


Thomas Williams, Director			(334) 460-6885
Biomedical Library and Media 			(334) 460-7638(fax)
   Production Services
University of South Alabama			twilliam@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
College of Medicine				http://southmed.usouthal.edu
BML 326B
Mobile, Alabama 36688-0002

On Mon, 30 Mar 1998, Jane Holmquist wrote:

> What puzzles me about the restrictive nature of access to
> Science Online in libraries is that the journal is published
> by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and
> just when there was a chance for us librarians to make it
> available to our users as soon as it was available (not
> waiting that extra week or two until our paper copy arrived),
> that window of opportunity closed!
> 
> Their model (requiring the IP address of each workstation)
> may work smoothly in a one-journal, one-workstation
> environment but it doesn't work smoothly in libraries.
> 
> It is an administrative nightmare to first, order and pay
> the additional price (which is reasonable enough, I might add),	
> and then catalog and communicate to our users which library has
> Science Online (not to mention the hundreds or thousands of 
> other titles), and specifically, which workstation in that library!
> 
> We librarians were given a very long and generous free trial
> period for Science when it began to publish some full-text
> articles online in 1995.  We were also encouraged to offer
> comments, advice, and criticism via the SCIENCE feedback
> mechanism.  Did we not do that when we had the opportunity?
> 
> Is it too late?
> 
> Jane Holmquist * Astrophysics Librarian * Princeton University
> 
> 
>


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