RE: Response from Ted Bergstrom to Ann Okerson

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

I want to call attention to the last two sentences of Karl's reply.

The view he expresses is perfectly reasonable if one 
is buying recreational material for oneself. 
But libraries buy for their  community--
and the buy to support not just the 
recreational needs but the information needs. If they
are academic libraries, they buy to support the information 
needs of research and teaching, primarily but not 
exclusively of their own community. 

I do not see that a rich community  has greater 
information needs than a poor community (public
or academic). I do not see how it is in the public 
interest that different groups get differential
access to information on the basis of expense. 

Some goods are not appropriately 
provided for by the free market. 
(And I think this is compatible with a view that 
"capitalism"  is in general the fairest, best or 
most productive way of pricing most things. )

We do have alternatives for information provision--
that's Open Access, which is at least potentially
 within our capabilities. 

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Karl Bridges
Sent: Fri 11/11/2005 5:07 PM
To: Peter Banks
Subject: Re: Response from Ted Bergstrom to Ann Okerson
 
I don't see it as a conspiracy.  I just wonder why an activity is
proscribed in one forum, but allowed in another?  Personally, I don't have
a great problem with publishers.  Either you can afford what the market
price for a product is or you can't.  It's called capitalism.

Quoting Peter Banks <pbanks@diabetes.org>:

> Please don't make this into a publisher conspiracy.
>
> I was making the point for the sake of participants in this list 
> serve--and Ann especially, whose neck is on the line. You should not 
> discuss pricing on any listserve, on any subject. If you doubt me, 
> ask your attorney.
>
> What happens in private conversations at meetings is your business.
>
> Peter Banks
> Acting Vice President for Publications/Publisher
> American Diabetes Association
> Email: pbanks@diabetes.org
>
>>>> Karl Bridges <Karl.Bridges@uvm.edu> 11/10/05 5:18 AM >>>
> I guess this leads to my next question. If it's a problem to discuss
> this in a listserv why are people doing it at conferences and why, if
> that happened, did not the publishers in the room complain about it?

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