Re: Fascinating quotation

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

On 17-Dec-04, at 2:43 PM, David Goodman wrote:

> Both parts of the fundamental cost/use balance should be considered.  
> There are several reasons for a library to cancel subscriptions, but the
> usual one is because of cost increases greater than budget increases.
> This is something publishers can deliberately affect, should they want
> to. If they are willing to decrease their profits to eliminate price
> increases altogether, I predict they will see almost no cancellations.
Good point - but I think that increasing content and service, using
efficient technologies, can be completely compatible with decreasing
prices - without any decrease in profits.  Hopefully the American Physical
Society has set a trend with their announcement of price decreases in
2005.  If other vendors followed suit, perhaps libraries could shift from
cancelling to adding subscriptions.

cheers,

Heather G. Morrison
BC Electronic Library Network
Email:  heatherm@eln.bc.ca