E-Choice option for Elsevier's Science/Direct

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

An anallysis I think will be of interest to Liblicense readers: a discussion
of Elsevier's "E-Choice" option for IDEAL journals.

E-Choice option for Elsevier's Science/Direct
by:
Kimberly Douglas, Dana Roth
Caltech Library System
and David Goodman
Princeton University Library
February 2002

http://www.arl.org/sparc/core/index.asp?page=f53

If there's one thing that seems to be as reliable as the rising sun, it's
that each year brings a new ScienceDirect pricing scheme from Elsevier.
This might be seen in the positive context of flexibility and a
willingness to adapt and/or learn. With E-Choice Elsevier has formally
adopted the perspective of those institutions for which quality trumps
quantity. Elsevier expresses it as "depth [4 yr. backfile] over breadth"
[entire online collection]. Additionally, arguments based on use-data must
have resonated so that now the phrase "libraries predetermined collection"
is a marketing slogan. Nevertheless selection of E-Choice, as with all
contracts, must be based on a complete and thorough evaluation of the
proposal and of possible ensuing alternate proposals. To start evaluating
this latest offer from Elsevier, it's best to approach it very
methodically:  The piece on the SPARC website goes on to dissect the
"option" methodically--. Chuck Hamaker