RE: Critique of Darnton

["Okerson, Ann" <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

As one who supports the humanities and the numerous excellent 
journals in the field, I could impishly add that the picture, at 
least for some libraries, may be more costly than Phil Davis 
paints:  how common or uncommon is it to subscribe to the same 
humanities journal in print, as well as a current sub online (via 
Muse, let's say) and the back issues elsewhere (in JSTOR, for 
example).  Of course, humanities journals aren't the only titles 
we receive in more than one format, each of which is paid for. 
In STM, many libraries have dropped their print subscriptions but 
some of the more prominent STM journals are nonetheless accessed 
in more than one way (and paid for in each).

Perhaps all I'm saying is that there is more duplication and 
overlap in paid subscriptions of all sorts, in various 
disciplines and formats, than we may realize.  And thus the price 
per article or whatever unit may often be higher than we think, 
at least in a given library.

Ann Okerson
Yale Library

________________________________________

From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Esposito [espositoj@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 9:16 PM
To: Liblicense-L@Lists. Yale. Edu
Subject: Critique of Darnton

Excellent post by Phil Davis, critiquing Robert Darnton's "Three 
Jeremiads":

http://bit.ly/ho06Um

It takes courage to publish something like this.

Joe Esposito