Libraries and archiving (Re: RE: If electronic is to replace paper)

[Rick Anderson <rick_anderson@uncg.edu>]

> Some very good ideas have been expressed.  However, why are libraries now
> advocating publishers or disinterested third parties archive electronic
> journals?  Libraries need to, in my opinion, archive and maintain access
> to the electronic journals they have subscribed to.  

Hear, hear.  Publishing and archiving are very, very different endeavors,
and it's not fair for librarians (who have never expected publishers to
act as an archive before) to suddenly insist that publishers do so now, in
the electronic environment.  Getting the content out to market in a
reasonably durable format is the publisher's job; saving the phyical or
electronic manifestations of that content for future use is the
librarian's.

Of course, this has ramifications for the license terms that publishers
impose when they sell to libraries.  If publishers don't want to serve an
archival function, then their license terms shouldn't forbid libraries
from doing so.  SOMEBODY has to keep this stuff available to future
readers and researchers, but far too many license agreements require
libraries to destroy all copies of data taken from the publication or
database during the subscription period.  If the publisher doesn't want
to, then for crying out loud let the libraries do it.  In return,
libraries should continue to abide by the terms of the original license
agreement for as long as they maintain the archive.

Rick Anderson

----------------------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
1000 Spring Garden St.
Greensboro, NC 27402-6175
PH (336) 334-5281
FX (336) 334-5399
rick_anderson@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders

"Freudian apologists welcome his
objections as the Undead welcome
nightfall."
-- Frank Cioffi (on Adolf Grunbaum)