Re: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

["Elizabeth E. Kirk" <elizabeth.e.kirk@Dartmouth.EDU>]

Some librarians are indeed on vacation. At least a few are on 
unpaid furloughs as part of their institutions' budget 
reductions.

Nat is correct, from where I stand. We are vocal about 
unsustainable price hikes. We do, contrary to the way it looks, 
realize that commercial entities answer to shareholders. We also 
know that, in a mature, non-expanding (i.e., ARL) market where 
the amount of new money flowing in is either very limited or 
non-existant, you really can't go on raising prices forever and 
think that it will work. Unless, of course, your goal is to 
increase the size of your piece of that pie, and with spend 
requirements and punitive opt-out clauses in bundle contracts, 
that has continued to work. At least until this year.

Research libraries need resources from a very wide range of 
publishers and vendors. We really do need publishers to not raise 
prices, and we do keep subscribing to as much as we can. Even if 
there is only a small user group for a journal, it may be *the* 
journal for that subdiscipline. Decisions are nuanced. And we 
really do want to see those single-title presses and non-profits 
stay in business. Many of us are doing everything we can to help 
keep them afloat.

Cheers,
Eliz

Elizabeth E. Kirk
Associate Librarian for Information Resources
Dartmouth College
6025 Baker Library, Rm. 115
Hanover, NH, USA 03753
PH: (603) 646-9929
FAX: (603) 646-3702
elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nat Gustafson-Sundell" <n-gustafson-sundell@northwestern.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 6:19 PM
Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

> Maybe everyone is on vacation, but it seems like fewer and 
> fewer actual librarians are using this particular listserv. 
> If you are doing research, you might try a more direct approach 
> with structured interviews or surveys. Based on the anecdotal 
> evidence and some material in the lit, I'd say it's abundantly 
> clear that many libraries hold publishers with abusive policies 
> accountable, but there are limits to what libraries can do in 
> the short term. Long term, though, the big boat started to turn 
> a while ago.
>
> -Nat
>
> [MOD note:  a quick scan thru the last 76 messages seems to 
> show that exactly half were posted by "real" librarians; and 
> several others by folks who work in library space but may not 
> have the conventional library degree or background.  Seems 
> okay, no?]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Nawin Gupta
> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 6:58 PM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website
>
> It is gratifying to see that a number of publishers are 
> foregoing price increases for the upcoming year.  Anecdotal 
> evidence to date is that many of the libraries, if not most, 
> are expecting budget cuts of around 10% or more. Sadly, despite 
> the noble gestures of some, chances are that librarians would 
> still need to cut some subscriptions.
>
> If I may ask a question of librarians on this list:
>
> Would a journal that did not increase its subscription price
> likely to be spared in your decision to cut?  Or, are the
> decisions likely to be based primarily on a journal's usage and
> its importance to the library "customers" and collection?
>
> Nawin Gupta
> www.nawingupta.com