Re: Recent Pricing/Licensing Terms for Society Publications

[Tom Williams <twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu>]

Well Paul, your rationale touts pretty much the company line for companies
(and societies) first getting into the digital age.  However, at our
library we wouldn't even give such an offer a second glance.  Unless I
miss my guess, you'll find the majority of major and not-so-major academic
libraries passing on your offer.  At your upcoming meeting on E
publishing, I would strongly suggest you give a lot of time to figuring
out what will work for the society AND for libraries.  Most publishers are
finding that in order to be competitive in the digital environment they
have to design a pricing algorithym which protects the company from losing
money but also is reasonable for libraries and allows access from anywhere
(by authorized users).

-- 
Thomas L. Williams, AHIP
Director, Biomedical Libraries and
 Media Production Services
University of South Alabama
College of Medicine
Mobile, Al 36688-0002
tel. (251)460-6885
fax. (251)460-7638
twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu

On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Ann Okerson wrote:

> Herein is the attachment referenced in Ms. Althen's recent posting to
> liblicense-l.
>
> Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 09:34:13 -0600
> From: Elsa Althen <ealthen@library.wisc.edu>
>
> **
>
> Subject: Re: Institutional Subscription to Limnology & Oceanography
> (electronic format)
> Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:00:04 -0500
> From: webeditor@aslo.org
> To: Elsa Althen <ealthen@library.wisc.edu>
>
> Hello,
>
> Because much of ASLO's funding comes from publication of Limnology and
> Oceanography, we are taking a moderately cautious approach as we move
> further into electronic publishing. Although we know library subscriptions
> to the printed L&O coexist with individual subscriptions on a given
> campus, we suspect that campus-wide electronic access to Limnology and
> Oceanography might result in the loss of individual subscriptions.
> Granting site-wide electronic access might require a change in the
> subscription rate structure in order to balance the loss of revenue.
>
> Until we can better assess this possibility, we are taking the interim
> step of restricting electronic access to a single facility.  Our intention
> is to provide all the functionality of a print subscription, with some
> enhancements. Because paper copies of research journals are generally
> non-circulating, they are also used within a single building. We will
> allow reasonable numbers of copies to be printed from the electronic file,
> just as a library would allow reasonable numbers of photocopies of
> portions of a printed research journal.
>
> A working group will be meeting in January to discuss electronic
> publishing policy issues, including the scope of electronic access, and
> will address the topic in a February Board meeting.  I would welcome input
> from the library perpective!
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul Kemp