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

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

Sandy,

Yes, I believe that same attitude does apply to monograph 
publishers. And as selectors see monographic prices on a daily 
basis, they are very aware of the variations in pricing.

Cheers,

Elizabeth E. Kirk
Associate Librarian for Information Resources
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA 03753
elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Thatcher" <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:04 PM
Subject: Re: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

>I wonder if the same attitude applies toward the publishers of
> monographs? Granted, each book is priced individually, but there
> certainly are patterns in pricing that differ across publishing
> houses, and it would not be difficult to identify an average
> price per page for any given publisher.
>
> Sandy Thatcher
> Penn State Press
>
>
>>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,
>>
>>Elizabeth E. Kirk
>>Associate Librarian for Information Resources
>>Dartmouth College
>>Hanover, NH, USA 03753
>>elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu