Re: Usage-based pricing (was ebooks in libraries a thorny problem)

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Why so binary?  The example of Mendel is silly.  EVERY library is 
going to pass on Mendel?  No contemporary Mendel or Morrison is 
going to post documents on servers somewhere?  The fact that some 
material does not find a place in the primary avenues hardly 
means that the side streets cannot be explored.

It is amazing to me that this topic continues to be dominated by 
extreme views. We are living in an era of unprecedented riches of 
information and access to information.

Usage-based pricing is but one tool.  It solves some problems. 
It does not solve all the world's problems.

Joe Esposito


On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 2:38 PM, Laval Hunsucker 
<amoinsde@yahoo.com> wrote:

> The Mendel instance is a classic one, but others of such a 
> sort, less spectacular, albeit significantly, are legion. One 
> is not inclined to envy researchers located in Austin in the 
> coming years, decades and generations
>
> - Laval Hunsucker
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Heather Morrison <hgmorris@sfu.ca>
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Sent: Tue, April 20, 2010 11:54:33 PM
> Subject: Re: Usage-based pricing (was ebooks in libraries a thorny problem)
>
> Dennis Dillon wrote:
>
> We believe that there is ample room in the market for fewer 
> books to be purchased on speculation, and for more publisher 
> revenue to be generated by usage-based pricing, patron-driven 
> selection, and print- on-demand options. Moving to usage-based 
> pricing and patron-driven selection means publishers and 
> librarians have to rethink some paradigms and be more in tune 
> with their readers, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
>
> Comment:
>
> As Dillon reports, the University of Texas is using usage-based 
> pricing along with other models, including careful selection by 
> subject specialists. Patron-driven selection and 
> print-on-demand are not the same as usage- based pricing.
>
> Question:
>
> Between the time Mendel worked out the basics of heredity and 
> people began to pay attention to this work, there was about a 
> century's gap. If every library was purchasing on the basis of 
> demand, would this work have been lost?
>
> Heather Morrison, MLIS
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com