FW: Message from EBSCO - Attn: Academic Librarians

["Carlson, David" <DCarlson@bridgew.edu>]

I'm not sure how many liblicense viewers received a copy of attached note
but I thought this unprompted email from Ebsco would be of interest to one
and all.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ebsco_web@epnet.com [mailto:owner-ebsco_web@epnet.com]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 9:35 AM
To: ebsco_web@epnet.com
Subject: Message from EBSCO - Attn: Academic Librarians 
 
 
Full Text Databases, Print Journals, and Electronic Journals 
- Distinctly Different Products
 
EBSCO's leading online full text databases offer access to full text
articles from peer reviewed journals published by many of the 
world's most prestigious academic publishers.  EBSCO's full text
databases offer tremendous value to an academic library by expanding
access to the content of important publications already in the library's
print or e-journal collection while, at the same time, providing new
access to a great number of highly valuable full text resources
previously unavailable to the library's users.   In addition, EBSCO's
databases offer a convenient way for users to search the full text
articles from a large collection of publications in one easy process.
And now, with the advent of EBSCO SmartLinks(TM), users can access the
full text of articles after searching popular abstract/index databases
such as PsycINFO and Sociological Abstracts.  Users can link to full
text articles in EBSCO's aggregated full text databases as well as to
online journals from citations in leading secondary databases available
via EBSCOhost.  
 
Online journals (also known as e-journals) provide users with online
access to articles from current issues of the journal.  Online journals
generally contain the same current articles that are included in 
current issues of the printed journal.
 
Many full text journals in aggregated databases have embargo periods
(delay of availability of full text articles imposed by publisher), and
some journals that don't now have embargoes may have embargoes in 
the future.  In addition, as the publishers own the content and control
the availability of the full text through databases, there is no
guarantee that a full text journal currently available via a database
will continue to be available in future years.  These are important
distinctions between aggregated databases and online journals.  For
these reasons, full text databases are not a practical, long-term
substitute for print or e-journal subscriptions purchased or licensed
directly from the publisher.  
  
Over the past several years, libraries have realized tremendous benefits
from the use of full text databases.  Costs for print subscriptions have
increased an average of 8.3% each of the last two years.  This is greater
than the average price increase for full text databases, despite the fact
that the amount of content available in these databases has increased
dramatically over that same period.   However, if these databases are
exploited, the benefits now experienced by libraries and their users could
erode.  Full text databases are here to stay, but the favorable ratio of
content and access to cost may not be.  Naturally, modest price increases
will take place as publisher royalties increase and delivery methods are
improved, but dramatic cost increases may be avoidable.  
 
Databases should be viewed as a complement (not a replacement) to the core
print and electronic journal collections.  If publishers experience
cancellations of current (print or online) journal  subscriptions due to the
inclusion of their content in aggregated databases, they are likely to
remove their content from these databases or increase their royalty
requirements.  Were this to happen, library users could be forced to deal
with incomplete library collections as publishers remove content from
aggregated databases, and the price of databases could increase
significantly.  However, this potential turmoil can likely be avoided if
librarians make print and e-journal purchasing decisions independent of
whether the full text of a journal is available in an aggregated full text
database.  Proceeding in this way should result in price and content
stability within aggregated databases, ensuring that end  users continue to
enjoy the benefits of access to these large collections of valuable data.
 
 
Sincerely, 
 
Sam Brooks
Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing
EBSCO Information Services