Re: E-Journals in the Era of Print Cancellations

[ferguson@columbia.edu]

I don't find our STM faculty are aware or worried about the archival
issue.  They are concerned with the effective use of their time.  Until we
get a critical mass of journals to look at, issues are archiving are off
in the future.  Now we librarians have to worry about archiving, but given
the e-journal animal is still evolving, and appears to be in its infant
stage, I don't think we can secure any sort of solution yet.

I am assuming that someday in the near future, when librarians are more
pressed for money than at present, they will decide to cancel the print
journals.  Of course many bound journals will be bound at the hip to the
their electric counterparts.  But eventually as libraries subscribe to the
electronic version only (if they want old issues they will pay document
delivery charges to libraries someplace on earth that has paper), the
publishers will start to charge extra for print and the non-equivalent
(anyway) print version will disappear.

Tony Ferguson, Columbia University

Fred Friend wrote:
> 
> Academic feelings on any topic can never be summarised in one sentence,
> but I would say that a common reaction from faculty and librarians at my
> institution is that e-journals will be an acceptable substitute for print
> once the archiving of the electronic version is secure. The benefits of
> e-journals are recognised but print is perceived to be the most reliable
> archive medium.
> 
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> Frederick J.Friend,
> Director Scholarly Communication,
> c/o Graduate School,
> University College London,
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