The "We're Not Perfect" Department. Steve Thompson from Brown University sends this correction, for which I thank him: The citation to Gordon Graham's article "A Scholarly Confrontation" in #26 of the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues is incorrect. The article is contained in the August 24 issue of PW, but it is in the Publisher's Weekly International Supplement, which is not contained in the main PW contents. The page number is thus S4, not 54.
27.2 RESPONSES TO PRICE INCREASES
Various Subscribers
We received invoices for 1991 prices for Elsevier and Springer Verlag last week from our continental subscription agent and compared 1991 prices with 1990 prices.
Overall these 63 titles increased 30 percent in price over last year, and their 1991 cost will be 14.3 percent of our entire state materials budget! How are we going to cope? On August 31, I finalized a list of 390 proposed journal cancellations (approximately 25 percent of our subscriptions) which is now being reviewed by faculty and the Library Committee (it only amounts to $65,000 at 1990 prices). We have also drastically revised our plans for book purchasing, eliminating most foreign publishers from our approval plan. (Danny Jones, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio)Publisher/ # Titles/ 1990/ 1991/ % Increase
Elsevier/ 22/ $33,463.96/ $44,777.42/ 33%
Springer Verlag/ 41/ $30,466.82/ $38,677.95/ 27%
We compared the SUNY Buffalo Elsevier list for 1990 and 1991, using the exchange rate set by Elsevier for 1991 prices. The 1990 prices were what we actually paid. A total of 134 titles were examined. Overall, we will be paying $39,647.82 for those 134 titles, an average increase of 35.6 percent. For the 18 titles published in New York, the average increase was a mere 15.2 percent; UK titles, 31.7 percent; Swiss titles 37.4 percent, and the Amsterdam list increased an average of 36.8 percent. Our legislated materials budget increase was around 5.3 percent. Obviously, that amount will not take us very far in the journal billings. Ultimately, our ability to purchase monographs for FY 1990/91 will be reduced by the difference. Are any monograph publishers concerned about the spiraling serials increases? Since one of the more common strategies is to cut down on book purchases to protect the serials investment, what reaction do they have? Or, are there any monograph publishers who don't have a serials publishing arm to make up the difference? Our university has experienced a 9.3 million dollar cut for FY 90/91; where are we realistically supposed to obtain the funds to continue paying for journals? And 91/92 looks to be worse. I anticipate another round of cancellations next year. We have attempted to seek some relief from the state capital because of the large number of foreign subscriptions we maintain, but we have no idea if the state can find the funds to help. 1991 is going to be a very difficult year, not just because of Elsevier, but with the continuing upward climb of journal prices in general. (Susan Davis, SUNY Buffalo)
Excerpts from memo to librarians and faculty library liaisons: Over the past six weeks the FY 1990/91 library materials budget has gone through two phases. Phase one began in late August when the library was notified that it would receive the same allocation as in FY 1989/ 90, $3,316,769. Although at that time the base budget remained the same as last fiscal year, costs have risen dramatically. Serials subscription prices are expected to increase by an astonishing average of 12.5 percent (some foreign serials are expected to rise between 24 percent and 35 percent!!) and standing order prices by 7 percent. To cover increases in subscription costs, $86,322, book allocations for FY 1990/91 were initially reduced by an average of 8.7 percent. Other allocations such as binding were also reduced. Phase two began September 12, when the library had to revert $200,209 from its FY 1990/91 base materials allocation. The September 12 reversion resulted in a further 21 percent decrease in book allocations for FY 1990/91, bringing the total reduction in this line to about 30 percent. Be aware of the fact that the library could experience additional reversions or freezes at any time during the next several months. Departments are STRONGLY encouraged to cancel serials and standing order subscriptions. A 50 percent CANCELLATION CREDIT HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE FOR SERIALS CANCELLATIONS UNDERTAKEN DURING THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. (John S. Shipman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Also at UNC-Chapel Hill, we are identifying particularly large dollar and percent subscription increases and calling them to the attention of departmental librarians and bibliographers, instead of just sending the usual written notice. Our acquisitions assistants have been asked to make sure that they get the notices written (despite our 40 percent vacancy rate) and that the department head is informed of the increases. At the same time, we are taking a look at journals we receive from international publishers and plan to work with departmental librarians to identify and cancel any titles that are marginal to the collection. We selected these publishers because it is a way of identifying a high proportion of very expensive titles. (Marcia Tuttle, UNC-Chapel Hill)
I don't know about other institutions but at ours the faculty do not seem to be totally supportive of our efforts. We are increasingly hearing faculty call for us to reduce staff in order to protect the collection budget. We have been doing this for several years now by eliminating services and not replacing staff, but perhaps we have not been clear about why we are doing this. I would be curious to know if others are having the same experience, as it can be distressing and depressing at times. How do they respond when the faculty says to fire staff, especially when they are already understaffed? (From a librarian who asked to remain anonymous)
27.3 ACM PUBLICATIONS PACKAGE PRICE INCREASES
Harry Llull, Centennial Science and Engineering Library, University of
New Mexico, Albuquerque NM; HLLULL@UNMB.BITNET.
We just received our bill for the Association for Computing Machinery publications package. Although these types of packages are still comparatively good deals in terms of the amount you receive and the scholarly level and interest, these prices seem to be going up as high as for-profit publishers and foreign journals. Our 1991 price increased by 22.5 percent over 1990 and 45.2 percent over 1989. Our package includes the SIGpackage, Publications Package, and the Reference Guide. Each part increased at different rates, with the Publications Package showing a 38.4 percent increase over 1990. If other society publishers show this kind of increase, it appears that the predictions of 20 to 30 percent and over increases for journals will apply to more of our overall budget than just the foreign journals or those titles produced by the large for-profit publishers.
27.4 INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE 1990S
Brian Kahin, Kennedy School of Government, KAHIN@HULAW1.BITNET
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announces a three-day workshop/symposium on issues and strategies in the development of information infrastructure at the local, state, and national level. This event, scheduled November 29 through December 1, is hosted by the Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program and the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program. Sponsors include Bellcore, Digital Equipment Corporation, Electronic Data Systems, IBM, Northern Telecom, and Ohio Bell.
Occasioned by the rapidly growing interest in the National Research and Education Network (NREN), the program is designed for a diverse audience of planners and policy-makers in government, industry, and education. It will combine in-depth analysis of technological, economic, and legal issues with the insights of leaders in networking and infrastructure development. Commissioned papers will be presented and discussed, and case studies and other special materials will actively engage participants in developing analyses and plans appropriate to their own institutional interests and the formation of state and national policy.
BACKGROUND. The spectacular growth of the Internet, especially the NSFNET component, has helped generate broad-based enthusiasm for a National Research and Education Network. The Office of Science and Technology Policy's "Federal High Performance Computing Program" and S. 1067, "The National High-Performance Computing Act of 1990," proposed by Senator Albert Gore, Jr., call for a major federal investment in the NREN -- as well as in advanced computing resources, software, information services, basic research, and human resources.
Despite the billing given to advanced computing, it is the NREN that gives these proposals coherence and support from an ever-widening constituency. While originally focused on scientific research, the case for an expanded research and education internetwork has been increasingly generalized to encompass use by private R & D facilities, secondary schools, public libraries, hospitals, and other organizations -- as well as the government agencies that interact with these users. Accordingly, it is often touted as a prototype for a universal broadband infrastructure that will be commercially supported and operated.
To a large extent the NREN vision is modeled on existing state and regional networks, and the structural framework is whether the present landscape of interconnected autonomous networks would change with increased funding and coordination at the national level. How should the NREN and other "quasi-public internetworks" supported by states and university/industry consortia be financed and organized as they grow in scope, scale, and functionality? What purposes should they serve? What services should they provide? Where and when do they involve or defer to private vendors? How should they connect or interoperate with different types of private networks, state and federal general purpose networks (such as FTS 2000), public packet-switched networks, commercial information services, and evolving forms of broadband public networks?
PROGRAM OUTLINE. Public Policy Perspectives: What has been and what should be the motivating vision for the development of research and education networks as a matter of federal science and technology policy? What are the strategic issues for similar initiatives at the state level? How does the tiered and decentralized U.S. approach compare with efforts underway in Europe and Japan?
COMMISSIONED PAPERS: Lewis Branscomb, Harvard KSG; David Farber, University of Pennsylvania; Jerry Mechling, Harvard KSG
Current and Future Players: Who are the players, near-term and long-term, in quasi-public networking -- and how is their environment changing? What commercial forces are coming into play -- and where? How will regulatory policies and marketing issues affect the participation of the RBOCs?
Richard Mandelbaum, NYSERNET/University of Rochester; Terrence McGarty, NYNEX/MIT
Technological Issues: What are the issues in designing the architecture of the NREN? How will it be influenced by two orthogonal forces: 1) high-bandwidth applications that press technological frontiers and put extraordinary demands on network resources; and 2) growing demand for access to basic services by an increasingly broad spectrum of users?
Leonard Kleinrock, UCLA; Larry Smarr, National Center for Supercomputer Applications; Ken Klingenstein, University of Colorado
Economic Issues: What are the economic models for data networks as infrastructure and what do they reveal about the roles for public and private investment? How do the microeconomics of "connectionless" packet-switched networking as used in the Internet and NREN differ from public data network implementations -- and from the evolving voice network technologies? How do these differences inform pricing policies and strategies within different market and institutional environments?
Gerald Faulhaber, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; William Hogan, Harvard KSG
The Role of Information: How will information behave in the NREN environment? How will this vary from sector to sector? What roles will public and proprietary information play and how will they interact? What can be done to facilitate flow and interaction?
Henry Perritt, Villanova Law School; Brian Kahin, Harvard KSG
Summary: How do these analyses inform the management and financing of the NREN? How do they inform state and local initiatives? -- and the relationship between state, national, and international infrastructures?
Steering Committee
The steering committee for "Information Infrastructure for the 1990s" includes: Brian Kahin, Project Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Jerry Mechling, Director, Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program; Lewis Branscomb, Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. The members of the committee have been individually involved in policy development for the NREN on behalf of the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee, and EDUCOM's Networking and Telecommunications Task Force. The Project also hosted a workshop in March 1990 on commercialization of the Internet, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment.
Registration is $750 government/nonprofit, $1500 commercial. For registration materials and other information contact:
The Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge MA 02138
(617) 495-3036
27.5 ELECTRONIC JOURNAL BEING MARKETED IN HOSPITALITY
RESEARCH
Lon Savage, Scholarly Communications Project, Virginia Tech,
SAVAGE@VTVM1.BITNET.
The International Academy of Hospitality Research, which announced plans last spring to launch an electronic, refereed journal with copyrighted articles and paid subscriptions, has begun marketing the journal and plans to send out the first issue in late October or early November.
The Journal of The International Academy of Hospitality Research will be sent to subscribers via BITNET and the Internet at annual subscription rates of $30 for libraries, $20 for individuals and $10 for students. Publisher is the Scholarly Communications Project (SCP) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. The SCP is a nonprofit initiative established to explore electronic communication of scholarly information. Fellows of the International Academy will serve as authors, editors, and advisers for the journal. President of the Academy is Dr. Michael D. Olsen, Head of Virginia Tech's Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management; Dr. Mahmood Khan and Dr. Eliza Tse of the department are Editor and Managing Editor of the journal, respectively, and Lon Savage of Virginia Tech is Director of the SCP.
Letters and brochures were sent in early September to several hundred faculty at degree-granting hotel school programs and to libraries, soliciting paid subscriptions to the electronic journal. Limited responses indicate that libraries and faculty members are interested in receiving the journal. Many of them are prepared to cope with electronic journals, but many are not.
Subscribers -- whether libraries or individuals -- will have to make their own arrangements for handling the journal once the issues are received, because of vast differences in local equipment, procedures, and practices. Indications are that some libraries may print the journal issues and put them on shelves; some will convert the issues to floppy disks. At least one library is establishing a separate e-mail address to which the journal -- as well as possible future electronic journals -- will be sent.
At Virginia Tech, home of the journal, the University Library plans to make it available on hard copy, on floppy disk within the Library, and online through the local area network. Charles A. Litchfield of the Library staff said they foresaw no problems. He said the Library would catalog it "like any other journal title and add it to both our local system (VTLS) and to the bibliographic utility we belong to (OCLC)." The Library, he said, "is of course willing to address these issues because we feel that this is the first of many electronic journals to which we will eventually subscribe."
Some libraries indicate they have not yet worked out a procedure for handling electronic scholarly journals, despite interest in them. Some respondents indicate they do not have access to BITNET or the Internet. Others indicate their institutions have such access but they do not have individual e-mail addresses. The SCP hopes the journal will encourage solutions to such problems.
Although the journal was established as a refereed journal in hospitality research, a secondary, and very important, purpose is to encourage electronic communication of scholarly information. When scholars show willingness to pay for the information in an electronic journal, libraries that have not done so are under some compulsion to work out a procedure for handling that journal; similarly, colleges, universities, and other institutions in the field that do not have access to networks are placed under additional pressure to obtain such access; and faculty members and students who have not bothered to obtain e-mail addresses have added reason to obtain and use them. As the result of many such decisions, it is hoped that the journal will help establish and enlarge the necessary infrastructure for electronic journals to succeed.
Problems in setting up such an infrastructure are anticipated, and subscribers will be allowed "to play a part in the pioneering nature of the journal by participating in exchanges of information about its effectiveness," according to the brochure mailed to potential subscribers. The SCP will try to arrange for subscribers to compare notes on how they are coping with the problems.
Although a large subscription is not anticipated, nor even desired, the SCP hopes that potential subscribers -- and especially libraries -- will not avoid the journal because of fear of technological problems. Libraries must play an active part in encouraging electronic journals, not only by endorsing the concept but also by fitting them into their day-to-day operations.
Further information about JIAHR may be obtained from Lon Savage, Scholarly Communications Project, Virginia Tech, 1700 Pratt Drive, Blacksburg VA 24061-0506; tel. (703) 231-4922; e-mail SAVAGE@VTVM1.BITNET. Information about how Virginia Tech's library plans to handle the journal may be obtained from Charles (Buddy) Litchfield, tel. (703) 231-3067; e-mail BUDDYL@VTVM1.BITNET.
27.6 CAN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING SOLVE THE SCIENCE LIBRARY
CRISIS? AAAS Symposium
H. H. Barschall, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin -
Madison, Madison WI 53706; NUCLEAR@WISCNUC.
The rapid increase in volume and cost of science serials has resulted in a crisis in most science libraries, which are no longer able to maintain the subscriptions researchers need. Many scientists think that this crisis can be resolved by replacing the printed material by electronic information systems. The symposium aims to examine how realistic this expectation is. The presentations include a summary of current research and development in electronic information systems. Presentations by a scientist, by the director of a research library, and by a publisher will discuss the scientific, economic, and practical aspects of the transition from paper to electronic publishing and will include discussions of the experiences with journals on CD-ROM and of some future plans of publishers of scientific journals.
The symposium, "Can Electronic Publishing Solve the Science Library Crisis?" will be held at the 1991 Washington annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Monday morning, February 18, 1991. H. H. Barschall will preside. The speakers and their topics are: Stuart Rothenstein, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., "Electronic Publishing from a Publisher's Point of View;" Martin J. Dillon, OCLC, "Research and Development in Electronic Publishing;" Malcolm Getz, Director, Vanderbilt University Library, "Electronic Publishing: An Economic View;" and Stewart C. Loken, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, "When Will Electronic Information Systems Replace Printed Journals?"
27.7 HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS
Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University Library, NOTCAH@LSUVM.
A quick discussion with Chris Schneider of Gordon & Breach indicates that due to the dollar's weakness worldwide, G & B is revising their 1991 price list for journals to American libraries. Instead of the ten percent increase projected from the last check I made with Chris, G & B titles will generally go up about 20 percent. Some exceptions are being made, and he felt that the 20 percent increase would be a maximum with several titles below that. G & B will be issuing a second catalog for 1991 with a date of September 15 reflecting the increases.
Another publisher has been added to their list: Craftsman House, from Australia, specializing in Australian artists and their works. The company was acquired in December of last year.
Also, we note with some dismay that Swets and Zeitlinger, sole European distributor for Gordon & Breach is now offering a 15 percent discount to American libraries for ordering G & B titles from them. That is a 10 percent SIP (Subscriber Incentive Plan) enrollment, plus 5 percent for ordering "direct" from Swets. In addition, this offer includes a provision for an additional 5 percent discount from list for G & B titles in the second subscription year, for a total of 20 percent in the second year. The general offer most of us have seen is "no service charge" for American libraries ordering G & B titles through Swets, but the new offer was made to a West Coast library the first week of September. In past years, G & B prices to the rest of the world have been significantly higher than U.S. list prices. Has this changed for 1991? How many "list" prices are there for G & B titles worldwide???
In the meantime, some vendors, who don't want to damage their relationship with G & B any more than it is already, have reported off the record that they are having problems getting the SIP discount for libraries that believed they had a right to it. Rumor has it that the SIP plan option will be offered again on open enrollment very soon. Oh, what tangled webs we weave ....
Some of you will note that even the LJ Hotline picked up on MCB University Press Inc's "freebie" for faculty who coerce libraries into subscribing (as reported in the last issue of the Newsletter).
The September issue of the Canadian Library Association's newspaper Feliciter carries two articles that U.S. librarians should read with care. First, ALA should become involved, if it is not already, in a July 8 proposal by the Canadian Department of Communications. The proposal would amend the Canadian copyright act to protect exclusive distribution rights, "thus making it illegal for anyone other than the publisher/agent, who has exclusive market/distribution rights to import or distribute specific titles; it would close the border to books imported by others than those licensed to do so: wholesalers could import only those titles not licensed to publisher/agents." (see President's Message, p. 2). I wonder if Canadians have looked at what exclusive distribution and sale rights have done to the cost of books in Australia, and what blocking "buying around" means for controlling journal subscription price gouging techniques. Put simply, by limiting access to worldwide markets for books and journals, prices go up (way up!) and access goes down. It is a sure recipe for an information impoverished economy. If anyone in Canada wants sources proving both these propositions, Pergamon published an excellent book describing the Australian situation, a situation the Aussies are now trying to correct (recent publications of the Australian Library Association detail that debate succinctly). And of course, Deana Astle and I have detailed differential pricing excesses publishers are capable of. The recent IFLA Acquisitions Committee workshop this past summer also documented what happens worldwide with differential pricing. Are American libraries being outmaneuvered because publisher associations maintain high visibility lobbying associations? Why can't libraries lobby for economic "goods" packages as effectively as publishers??
Another "Canadian" issue is international in implications and is covered in the same September issue of Feliciter. The president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association sounds a bit like Nicholas Veliotes of the AAP. In an April interview, Mr. Brian Robertson, President of CRIA, argued that lending compact disks was depriving the recording industry of hundreds of millions of dollars. Since in many people's opinion, a CD constitutes a "master recording," patrons borrowing library CDs must be copying them -- right!! That is, there is a direct correlation between lending, copying, and "drop" in sales. In Canada, the sale of CDs went from 1.3 million units in 1985 to about 9 million in 1988. If library sales "hurt" the industry, resulting in a "drop" in sales, it ain't evident from those numbers. Mr. Robertson wanted "listening rooms" in libraries to be the only legal use of CDs. The correlate for print materials would be in-house only use (no circulation) and, of course, making it illegal for there to be copying machines in libraries.
The Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published as news is available by the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Publisher/Vendor-Library Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Serials Pricing Issues. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; ALANET: ALA0348; Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; telephone: (919) 962-1067; FAX: (919) 962-0484. Committee members are: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Mary Elizabeth Clack (Harvard University), Jerry Curtis (Springer-Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Robert Houbeck (University of Michigan), and Marcia Tuttle. EBSCONET customers may receive the newsletter in paper format from EBSCO. Back issues of the newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor.