Re: Message from Pat Schroeder re: Librarians

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btinternet.com>]

Adrian

In the UK at any rate a major part of expenditure on lobbying by the
Publishers Association is to press government for more funding for
libraries, both public libraries and libraries at all educational levels.
The PA also pay for statistical research in this area. I cannot speak for
the AAP but if you look at their site it does look as if they are active
in areas such as literacy.

It seems to me that spending on libraries and particularly spending on
buying books and journals and electronic products as a percentage of
overall university spend in both the US and the UK is a disgrace and I
cannot understand why we do not see more signs of pressures on
administration from senior library figures. You may well be aware of
campaigns for more money being conducted by the ARL (for example) but they
are well hidden. I cannot find them on the ARL site and I have also done a
search on the Chronicle of Higher Education and I cannot find such
initiatives there. Why not?

Anthony Watkinson
14, Park Street, Bladon, Woodstock,
Oxon, England OX20 1RW
phone +44 1993 811561 and fax 1993  810067


----- Original Message -----
From: Adrian Alexander <alexandera@lindahall.org>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 9:40 PM
Subject: RE: Message from Pat Schroeder re: Librarians


> If we ARE reduced to such a discourse, I don't think it's because
> librarians wanted it to take that direction.  Many feel that we had no
> choice, given continual price increases, limited funding for libraries,
> and the continuing proliferation of scholarly publishing. Anyone seen any
> publishers in the state legislatures lately lobbying for more funds for
> libraries? The tight space between the rock and the proverbial hard place
> is getting smaller for libraries, not larger.  Having said that, I don't
> think it's realistic to consider price caps in the current environment.
> The only strategy that makes any sense long-term is fundamental changes in
> the scholarly communication system.
>
> Adrian Alexander