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

["Nat Gustafson-Sundell" <n-gustafson-sundell@northwestern.edu>]

My impression is that university and library policies are 
becoming more self-interested, rather than less so (and 
intriguingly, self-interest can only be achieved by greater 
cooperation/ coordination, thus the sometimes seemingly 
out-of-focus discussions, eg/ copyright and its alternatives, 
since this is really akin to a contract negotiation with lots and 
lots and lots of people at the table).

Since the university is producer and consumer of these goods, the 
toleration of a middleman is not going to be unlimited. So long 
as the middleman takes a reasonable fee and adds value, the 
status quo is acceptable, or actually preferred.  When, however, 
the fee becomes unreasonable, it makes sense to explore other 
means to achieve the same added value.

I see this as something akin to the decision about whether or not 
to in-source or out-source a job.  I've been a Business Manager 
for two firms and have been involved in several sometimes 
difficult decisions about what services to keep in-house and 
which to let go of (or experiment with), where quality and cost 
are the two main concerns.  In fact, when I was the Treasurer of 
a software company (which quintupled in size while I was 
there:-), we always considered building any kind of software 
in-house whenever we thought about implementing some new 
application since there was always a good chance we could build a 
better product with lower overall costs to maintain than 
something we could buy, given our resources.  Now given the 
resources available to universities and their libraries...

-Nat

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Esposito
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 5:08 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

It is not every day that Fred Friend, David Prosser and I are in
agreement.

>From that common ground, however, we would likely move in very
different directions.  I would propose that in a world where the
economy tends to have people and institutions act in their own
self-interest, universities would themselves act in their own
interests.  This would mean, for example, that universities would
recognize that they create more intellectual property than
anyone--much, much more than all the commercial entities.  As
creators, they would seek to protect and exploit IP, but instead
they are tending toward liberalizing IP rights.  This is like
having Exxon embrace the science of global warming or the NRA
adopt the precepts of Gandhi.

I articulated this idea in "The Wisdom of Oz:  The Role of the
University Press in Scholarly Communications" a few years ago:
http://bit.ly/2bdeQY.

Joe Esposito

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of David Prosser
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 3:11 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

Joe articulates my fear in the current price round.  A number of
small and society publishers have responded positively to ICOLC's
call for price restraint, but it is not at all clear to me that
we have market mechanisms that will reward those showing
restraint.  My concern is that this could result in reduced
revenues for those publishers that have shown themselves most
responsive to the problems of library budgets.

David Prosser
Director, SPARC Europe

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Esposito
Sent: 04 August 2009 00:07
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

I believe the point Nawin is making is that freezing or lowering
prices is not in a publisher's interest unless the product is of
marginal value, in which case a high price may indeed result in a
cancellation.  The obvious point to be made here is that this is
an editorial game (the best products win)and other aspects of a
publisher's trading practices (low pricing, good customer
service, flexible usage terms, nice people)are rarely rewarded
(except, to repeat, for marginal publications).  In fact, it may
be in the interests of a publisher of the higher quality
publications to raise prices even in desperate economic times, as
such a publisher is protected by the armor of outstanding
editorial content and can stand by and watch as the weaker
editorial products get cancelled, despite the generous trading
practices of those unfortunate publishers. If I have
misunderstood Nawin's question (which I took to be rhetorical),
please correct me.

I don't like the implications of this reasoning any more than
anyone else; it's a lot like cheering on the Second Law of
Thermodynammics; so I beg you not to shoot the messenger.  But
this is the way the economy works, and matters are not improved
by encouraging "good behavior" only to punish the most noble in
the end.

Joe Esposito

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Rais, Shirley (LLU)
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 6:08 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Journal/Publisher 2010 price freeze info on MLA website

Nawin:

I would still base cuts primarily on usage and value to our
collection & mission, but if I had to make choices between
marginal titles, those without price increases would get an edge
towards retention.  The price freezes will help me save titles
overall, not just the titles with frozen prices.  By marginal I
mean titles with usage on the low end of the spectrum that
support smaller programs on campus.  The price freezes may
actually help me add some titles!

Shirley Rais, MLS  -  Chair, Serials & Electronic Resources Dept.
Library Liaison to the School of Public Health LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY |
University Libraries Loma Linda, California 92350 srais@llu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu On Behalf Of Nawin Gupta
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 4:58 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