RE: Library subscription rebates for Open Choice content

[David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>]

The other variant has been more common: that when the library 
maintains a subscription, the author fees will be rebated. This 
was pioneered by BMC, and I think it was one of the factors in 
the willingness of research libraries to obtain membership in the 
project. (The discount is of course nowhere near as great as it 
used to be.)

Except in the case of dedicated endowments, libraries do not have 
their own money--they parent institution allocates money for the 
provision of library materials, because traditionally the library 
has provided them through purchasing them & making them available 
to the individual students and researchers. If instead they are 
paid for by author fees, then it is altogether reasonable for the 
university to pay for that, whether through the library or 
through other channels. What the researchers need be concerned 
with, is that their institution supply the funds for the 
continuation of research journals (and other material).

What librarians need be concerned with is that funding for 
traditional libraries continue at sufficient levels to maintain 
their strength and usefulness. A library does not become 
important because the expenses of journals are paid through 
it--we just pass on the money one way or another.

On a practical plane, if limited money must be allocated directly 
to individual faculty, then the library is in a relatively weak 
position for resolving the inevitable disputes. Research 
universities need to make the commitment that, just as they in 
one way or another provide all needed material now, they will in 
one way or another provide all necessary publication fees (most 
of it, if present trends continue, from grant funding).

Libraries in non-research institutions by and large cannot supply 
all needed materials now, and those institutions will have 
similar problems later. Open access will eliminate inequity in 
the access to material, but it will not eliminate inequity in the 
availability of research funding.

David Goodman, Ph.D., M.L.S.
dgoodman@princeton.edu

----- Original Message -----
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Liblicense-L
> Listowner
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:09 AM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Library subscription rebates for Open Choice content
>
> Dear Readers:  Various of our journal contracts now state that 
> where authors pay for Open Choice (or something like it, i.e., 
> cover costs of publication of their articles to be free to all 
> readers worldwide), library subscriptions will be rebated for 
> the equivalent.
>
> Questions:
>
> 1.  How do you all imagine this will work in real life?
>
> 2.  Has it happened already, i.e., has Open Choice or Author 
> Choice or whatever, been around for long enough?  Or, will it 
> happen as of 2008 and if so, what are publishers preparing to 
> do to adjust 2008 subscriptions?
>
> Thank you, Ann Okerson/Yale Library