Re: AIP & APS

["West Mark" <mark_west@umanitoba.ca>]

Point for point, our experience at UM has been the same. Our IOP
rep appears to be sympathetic to our needs and concerns, but IOP
policy prevails.

Good luck!

Mark West
Administrative Assistant, Acquisitions (Serials)
University of Manitoba Libraries

mark_west@umanitoba.ca
204/474-6556 Voice
204/474-7581 Fax

_________________________________________________________________________

From:           	"David Fowler" <dfowler@gwgate.lib.iastate.edu>
To:             	<liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Subject:        	AIP & APS
Date sent:      	Thu,  7 Oct 1999 17:41:59 EDT
Send reply to:  	liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu

> Hi,
> 
> I am curious about what other experiences people on this list have had 
> with the electronic subscriptions policies & licenses of the American 
> Insititute of Physics/American Physical Society.
> 
> I am afraid that our university's experience with them has been extremely 
> disappointing. One tends to expect problems when dealing with the big 
> publishers like Elsevier (who have actually been pretty responsive to us), 
> and not from a learned society like AIP, which I was under the impression 
> would be in the business of serving its member physicists. Instead they 
> have been quite intent on putting up roadblock after roadblock for us in 
> our quest to put their electronic publications on our web. I would think 
> they would be more interested in making those same publications easily 
> available to their membership.
> 
> Our difficulties with them can be divided into two areas:
> 
> 1) Interlibrary loan restrictions. We ask that they allow us to make 
> print-outs of electronic copy, and them mail them via traditional USPS 
> means for interlibrary loan purposes. They refuse to allow any ILL use of 
> their electronic publications whatsoever, even if we stipulate that no 
> direct electronic retransmission would be done. While we have had to 
> occaisonally negotiate this point with other publishers, AIP is the ONLY 
> one with which we have not been able to reach a satisfactory compromise 
> with.
> 
> 2) Access to our IP ranges. ISU has a DOE lab located on our campus, known 
> as Ames Lab. The Lab has a different set of IP addresses than the main 
> campus, but other parts of the university use different IPs as well. It is 
> physically on our campus. The researchers there are ISU faculty, whose 
> offices are located in the lab. We have a contact with Ames Lab that 
> requires us to provide them with all electronic resources that we provide 
> any other unit on the campus. For us not to do so, would put us in 
> violation of that contract.
> 
> We had already had APS (part of AIP) publications available on our web for 
> some time. Suddenly, AIP cut off access to Ames Lab without the slightest 
> bit of warning to us, which at the very least was pretty rude of them. We 
> contend that the Lab is a unit of this University for as long as we are 
> contracted with them. As such, vendors should provide services to their IP 
> ranges, just as they would to other ISU IP ranges. Their failure to do so 
> puts us in the uncomfortable position of have to discontinue access of ALL 
> APS electronic pubs to the entire university community, in order to remain 
> in compliance with the Ames Lab contract.
> 
> I think AIP would want to be a little flexible in dealing with the 
> legitimate concerns of a major academic insititution, but all that I have 
> gotten from them thus far is an unwavering "company line" about AIP having 
> to protect "its rights". As I indicated previously, I think they should be 
> more concerned with serving its membership.
> 
> I am interested in any similar experiences with AIP that others on the 
> list may have had, and any constructive suggestions for dealing with them. 
> Thus far, I am not optimistic about our relations with them, and in my 
> tenure as electronic resources coordinator at ISU, they are the only 
> vendor that would not compromise with us.
> 
> regards,
> 
> David C. Fowler
> Electronic Resources Coordinator
> 204 Parks Library
> Iowa State University
> Ames, IA 50011
> Office (515) 294-0422
> Fax (515) 294-5525