Re: American Society for Microbiology

[Jen Weintraub <jsw15@cornell.edu>]

Until recently, I believed the American Academy of Pediatrics had the most
restrictive license, limiting free online access to print subscribers to
only the buildings in which the library was located.  However, the ASM is
quite a bit more restrictive.

The only other instance I have heard of restricting dial-in access is from
Women's Wear Daily, a newspaper which allowed access only from our
institutions buildings.  They are a corporation which apparently gets
multiple subscriptions of their paper from the same company (even the same
office) and did not want to lose those subscriptions.  Since they provided
no archive, we wouldn't have cancelled our subscription anyway.

Pediatrics has a "site" license which costs 2.8 times the price of the
print (it includes the print subscription).  For online only, (with no
archive) the price is 3.5 times the price of the print!  Their definition
of a site is "A "Subscriber Site" for both academic and commercial
subscribers includes all locations within a single municipality.".  This
is a problem for Cornell, with research stations in Geneva, NY and the
Medical School in New York City, as I'm sure it is other institutions.

The subscriber of Pediatrics states that "Our print subscriptions can be
cheaper because of the advertising revenues that offset them."  I am of
the opinion that they should encourage web advertising as well if they
believe so many more people are going to be reading Pediatrics.

While not all societies are the same, all societies should be careful not
to charge unsustainable prices for their journals. If every publisher
institutes large price increases, surcharges or restrictive licenses, most
libraries would have to cancel their less important journals and the
market would shrink;  publishers will get even less money.

Jennifer Weintraub
Bibliographer and Full-Text Genre Specialist
Mann Library, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-4301
jsw15@cornell.edu
tel: 607-255-9022
fax: 607-255-0318

__________________

At 1:46 PM -0500 11/24/98, David Goodman wrote:
>I have also been in communication with them also.  As I have confirmed in
>extensive correspondence with their Director, Journals, Linda Illig
><Illig@asmusa.org>, the license does not even include access in all of a
>single building, except for the actual library. This is not an oversight
>or awkward wording, but intentional.  For the complete license, see:
>
>  http://www.journals.asm.org/subscriptions/sitelicense.shtml
>
>Since, as I and the faculty here see it, the key benefit of electronic
>journals is their greater availability, we are also not paying the 30%
>premium they are charging, though we certainly would pay it for at least
>some of their journals if they provided the usual campus-wide access.
>The faculty here, including the editor in chief of one of their journals,
> are also involved in correspondence with them.
>
>I have not seen a definition as restrictive as this elsewhere. All other
>scholarly scientific organizations have more liberal terms for
>institutional subscribers (I summarize, and am not specifying details) :
>
>AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS  has the electronic versions free with print,
>unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY  has the electronic versions for a surcharge,
>unlimited campus-uide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY has the electronic versions free with print,
>unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus
>
>AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY has the electronic versions free with print,
>unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus
>
>AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY has the electronic versions free with print,
>unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus
>
>AMERICAN SOCIETY OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY has the electronic versions for a
>surcharge, unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY has the electronic versions in a package
>with print, unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS has the electronic versions free with print, unlimited
>campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA has the electronic versions in a package with
>print, unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS has the electronic versions
>free with print, unlimited campus-wide use and dial in access from off campus.
>
>The ASM's reply to this list is that
>>All societies are not the same.
>
>David Goodman
>Biology Librarian, Princeton University Library
>dgoodman@princeton.edu         http://www.princeton.edu/~biolib/
>phone: 609-258-3235            fax: 609-258-2627
>
>_________________
>
>David S. Crawford wrote:
>>
>> Do other libraries find the proposed American Society for Microbiology
>> licence rather strange?
>>
>> The ASM restricts the licence to a BUILDING, charging extra fees for extra
>> buildings.  At McGill we have a general policy of offering all
>> library-purchased e-titles to all users and the costs of covering all our
>> buildings would be far too high.  McGill's IP addresses are not strictly
>> linked to a building, so even if we wanted to do this we would find it
>> difficult.
>>
>> Due to the ASM rules McGill will not be subscribing to their, very useful,
>> e-journals and Faculty members here who are ASM members are lobbying their
>> Executive.
>>
>> Any comments or other ideas?
>>
>> David S. Crawford
>> Health Sciences Librarian
>> McGill University
>> Montreal,  CANADA