No Subject

[Karen Hunter <K.HUNTER@elsevier.com>]

David Goodman, in raising his question about our reporting requirements
for ILL from ScienceDirect cites the CONTU guidelines as removing any
reporting responsibility from lending libraries.  However, the CONTU
guidelines were negotiated in the mid-1970s explicitly and only for ILL
via photocopying.  They do not apply to, and have never been agreed to by
publishers, for ILL from electronic files.  Unfortunately there are no
agreed guidelines covering digital ILL.  Many publishers, including those
now offering some ILL from their electronic files, would like to negotiate
new guidelines.

In the absence of guidelines, publishers have had to approach this area in
other ways.  Because our licenses are with the lending libraries, not the
borrowing libraries, it is with those libraries that we seek to reach some
agreement on what represents an acceptable alternative.

Publishers--at this early stage of Web journal distribution--are
understandably not comfortable with there being no accountability on the
distribution of their material.  We negotiate a license in good faith,
defining the authorized user community.  To permit ILL with no
recordkeeping looks like a very large open back door to the files,
particularly when the preferred trend in ILL is to have direct requestor
input into the process and direct electronic article return to the
requestor, i.e., a "hands (and eyes) off" procedure,

We are very understanding of the fact that this introduces a new
administrative procedure into the ILL process.  Some ScienceDirect
licensees have, indeed, said that it was not worth it and they would
continue to do ILL from the paper.  Fine.  That is certainly not our
intent.  In other cases we have worked with the libraries to deal with the
issues that concern them, whether administrative or otherwise.  We are
certainly not seeking any kind of double payment.  What we really want is
some level of information about the use of the files for ILL to understand
the nature of what is happening.  That, not money, is the issue.

We invite all prospective ScienceDirect customers to talk openly with
their account managers about their concerns, Only in that way can we see
what adjustments should be made in the policy.

Karen Hunter