Savings for Electronic only and VAT rates [was: FREE TRIAL ACCESS TO AIP ONLINE ARCHIVES (fwd)]

["Bernd-Christoph Kaemper" <kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de>]

David,  you wrote

> A savings of 10% for electronic only is just not that attractive in most
> circumstances. If publishers would like to encourage the transition to
> electronic subscriptions, they should do just what your organization has
> done, and offer a 50 percent savings.

This is especially true for us in Europe where we have to pay a VAT rate
for electronic products which is 9% higher than the normal reduced VAT
rate for books and journals which is 7% here in Germany (the figures are
slightly different for other countries). This is the reason why we tend to
prefer offers where electronic access is simply included with the print
subscription, and why going electronic only usually saves us nothing or
very little.

Bernd-Christoph Kaemper <kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de>
Subject Specialist for Physics and Electrical Engineering,
Stuttgart University Library, P.O. Box 10 49 41, 70043 Stuttgart, Germany