Re: Elsevier e-journals - bye bye IP access ; hello username password:(

[dgoodman@princeton.edu (David Goodman (dgoodman@Princeton.EDU))]

I am also quite puzzled by the change, which does seem to me not an
"improved" system but a major step backwards.

It has been announced on various journal websites for the last few weeks,
but the announcement that I have seen appeared to say (as best I could
interpret it) that it would supplement the previous system rather than
totally replace it. (The old system is still working here, for at least
some of the titles.)

The system is, according to the announcements, modelled on Biomednet. This
is what worries me most, because I have never been able to get Biomednet
to work. Biomednet is a system developed for access by individuals, not
institutions, and the administrators of that system have told me that it
cannot in its present form be gotten to work for a network as extensive as
even a medium sized US university. Improvements have been promised, but I
have not yet seen them. The system at present works by having the library
register its current subscriptions and ip range. People from within that
ip range can then register themselves and get an id and password.  (What
doesnt work is, first, that we can't enter a wide enough ip range, and
second, that a library terminal cannot consistently be set for more than
one person. The administrators suggested dealing with the second problem
by using a dummy patron, but had no remedy for the first except for them
to rewrite their system.) Now it is possible of course that the new system
will be better, but we have not yet been able to enter anything in it at
all.

Even if it worked, I at least have very strong objections to a system
which requires users to tell the publishers who they are. Elsevier does
not know the names of the individuals who read their printed journals in
the library, which is as it should be. Elsevier should not know the names
of the individual who read the electronic versions either. Their only
valid use would be advertising, and I consider that patrons have the right
to use their material without being added to their advertising list.


I also suspect that this is an attempt to force us into Scienc Direct. If
so, it may be counter-productive.  I for one am more likely to remove all
Elsevier titles from my e-journal list than to make additional
committments to a company that would perpetrate a negative improvement
such as this.  My personal view only, as always.

David Goodman/Princeton Univ. Library