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Re: EJournal Aggregation
I'd like to add my support to Andrew's position. I think the development of a model license agreement (or models) would serve as an excellent communications tool, discussion point. Clout and forcing vendors, or vice versa, completely aside. Jim Kuhlman Univ. of Alabama - - - - - - - Forwarded Message Follows - - - - - - - I guess I have to jump in here and explain a little about why I suggested what I did. > > . . .Standardization in licencing will probably not happen > > in our professional lifetime. That is dreaming, really. Expecting > > publishers to jump onto the bandwagon with aggregators is equally > > delusional. Librarians do not have the economic clout to pressure this to > > happen, especially since libraries are cutting back on subscriptions. My eyes skipped over the part about aggregators and publishers. Except for HighWire, I am not aware of any electronic aggregator who handles the publications of different publishers. I would be glad to hear about more. Every other case I know of, the Institute of Physics, and the American Chemical Society, the publisher is assuming control for it's own electronic edition. My proposal on a model license is not about pressure, it's about education. The disparity of terms that I have seen from various vendors indicates to me that they don't really know what will work for a licensing terms so they are casting about for a solution. Libraries need to work with the publishers in order to standardize the situation and bring order out of the chaos. The current situation does nobody any good. > From my understanding of the economics of journal publishing, libraries > cutting back on subscriptions should *increase* their clout. Institutions > are charged higher rates largely because of the inelasticity of library > demand. If libraries become more sensitive to price changes, > institutional demand becomes more elastic, and publishers have reduced > freedom to raise subscription rates. > > The actual impact of the models discussed on this listserv on the > economics of scholarly publishing is obviously unsettled. But I question > the assertion that libraries don't have the economic clout to influence > the models. > I do not think the argument needs to revolve around the issue of economic clout to be productive. In fact, I think that nothing would be more unproductive than to argue about clout. A discussion whose purpose is to educate publishers about what librarians need in a license is necessary. A gathering of librarians so they could define what the sticking points of current licenses are would also be useful in itself. The very fact that this group exists proves how important licensing issues are. Andrew Wohrley Andrew Wohrley Science & Technology Department Auburn University Libraries http://www.auburn.edu/~wohrlaj wohrlaj@lib.auburn.edu
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