RE: Cost of Open Access Journals: Other Observations

[Carl Anderson <ca25@drexel.edu>]

On Fri, 28 May 2004, D Anderson wrote:

...

> Economists would argue that the end users of the information, the ones who
> ultimately benefit from that information, should provide compensation
> commensurate with the benefits they receive.
>
> Dean H. Anderson

Apart from any broader considerations of what economists might argue or
any narrower response on the issue of subsidizing access - I can't help
but take this one on!

Libraries don't typically make the end user pay (directly) at all, and
certainly not in any proportion relevant to individually received benefit.
That's sort of how and why libraries came about, isn't it?

The only model that sensibly matches Dean's prescription is individually
negotiated pay-per-view transactions between publishers and end users.

Carl A. Anderson
Director of Electronic Resources
Drexel University Libraries
215-895-2771
Carl.Anderson@drexel.edu