116.2 FAXON UPDATE, Judy Davis
116.3 AFTER THE FALL, Susan Davis
Marcia Tuttle, tuttle@gibbs.oti.unc.edu.
Last month several members of the newsletter editorial board were at NASIG.
We took our trays one lunchtime and sat together for an informal editorial
board meeting. I had commented to the board earlier that there seemed to be
little news coming in about serials prices. One of the members responded:
This raises the question of whether the serials pricing crisis will
continue to be such a flaming issue in the future and whether the
focus of the newsletter needs to be expanded somewhat -- to include
issues beyond just prices that occur between publishers, librarians,
and agents. There are definitely issues that could benefit from cross-
fertilization in the newsletter format that are not strictly based on
serials prices. There have been the recent questions about e-journal
formats and pricing strategies. More of this will probably arise in
the future, and there is a real need for feedback and discussion. I
don't know another format where these issues can be raised. Nothing
else has the immediacy of the Newsletter. And the librarian electronic
discussion groups are probably not monitored by very many publishers
because the majority of material would be too oriented to library
applications.
Another asked for "more emphasis upon strategic issues -- role of publish-
ers, agents, librarians, academics in the electronic publishing era." Still
another suggests "such things as delivery of articles via document delivery
which would include pricing and copyright, and the impact on subscriptions
to the paper; use of Internet by publishers, etc. to distribute article
information."
Editorial board members recommended not only that we officially expand the
scope of the newsletter, but that we change the title -- expand the title,
too. I gasped, visions of snakes in the grass dancing in my head. Indeed!
Something like _Newsletter on Serials Publishing Issues_, they told me. The
rest of the editorial board members have had a chance to comment, and they
concur.
Now we would like to know what newsletter readers think. Should we broaden
the scope of this newsletter? Should we change the title? What should be
the scope? The title? If you'll tell me your ideas and feelings about this,
I'll pass them on to the others. Then, with your help, we'll decide what to
do.
116.2 FAXON UPDATE
Judy Davis, President (via Mike Markwith), The Faxon Company, Westwood MA.
Good News! Faxon is pleased to inform all of its clients that we have just signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Swets & Zeitlinger BV, a major European subscription agency, for the sale of Faxon's European subsidiar- ies. We look forward to a closing on August 5, 1994. We are also moving toward completion of the sale of our other operations to R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a 130-year old, "Fortune 120" New York Stock Exchange firm and North America's largest printer. We project a rapid clos- ing and a smooth transition of ownership. These sales will allow Faxon to pay all outstanding debts owed to publish- ers (and recapitalize the parent company). They will also provide Faxon the strong financial backing we need to establish both continuity and stability for all of our subscription servicing business. As always, Faxon's global network will continue to supply all titles, both US and non-US, to all of our clients worldwide. We thank you for your con- tinuing support and look forward to providing you with better and better service going forward. Naturally, we will keep you advised as we move for- ward and our business arrangements are concluded.116.3 AFTER THE FALL: SERIALS MANAGEMENT IN THE POST-CRISIS AGE. REPORT ON THE ALA/ACRL JOURNAL COSTS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES DISCUSSION GROUP
Susan Davis, SUNY at Buffalo, unlsdb@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu.
Nowhere was the lower attendance at this year's ALA conference and the spread out meeting locations more noticeable than at this meeting. Jim Mouw, chair, faced an audience of no more than 30 people. Considering the interest this meeting generated on the e-waves beforehand I was expecting a large turnout. It was truly a shame that more people could not attend this session, my report will hardly give the speakers full justice to their excellent presentations. -- The Serials Survey Project: Zero Based Collection Development at LSU. October Ivins, Head, Acquisitions and Serials Services, Louisiana State University, described two pilot projects that had been undertaken at her institution. First, she informed us that LSU has had a flat materials budget for the past ten years, spending about 85% for serials. Faculty have indicated the desirable ratio is 65%. After three cancellation exercises with exhaustive faculty review, there was consensus to cancel only $60,000 from their $2,000,000 serials budget! Seventy-five percent of the titles identified as potential cancellations were ranked as essential by at least 2 departments. Cancellation efforts simply were not effective in reducing the percentage of the budget spent on serials. A new strategy of identifying what is needed, not evaluating what is al- ready purchased was implemented. In late 1992 UnCover was introduced in the library for document delivery. In early 1993 the Dean of the Library met with the Dean of Basic Sciences and the Head of Collection Development met with the Chair of the Chemistry Department to discuss the new strategy. The library would subsidize a one month test of document delivery to satisfy faculty members' journal needs. Each faculty member was limited to 30 es- sential journals. The library's goal was to have faculty distinguish what was really needed on campus from what was acceptable via document delivery. After one month, the faculty had identified 287 unique essential titles, 212 were already owned by the library. One third of the list was claimed by one faculty member, one third by two, and the remaining third by three or more. Document delivery access was acceptable for 40% of the titles. The faculty had discovered they could really obtain articles in a timely fash- ion. The next step was to extend this pilot project to the Geography and Anthro- pology Department. They had identified 1800 titles as essential in previous reviews. After using UnCover, the number of essentials decreased to fewer than 600, 60% already in the LSU collection. Faculty interest in the essen- tial titles matched the Chemistry numbers, one third requested by one fac- ulty, one third by two, one third by three or more. The Library has formed a planning group to extend the project to additional departments in the sciences in 1994/95. They expect next year's cancella- tion efforts to make significant use of the document delivery data, and they may actually order some new subscriptions! The project is expected to expand to the social sciences and humanities in 1995/96. Then it is expec- ted to be an ongoing process. -- Electronic Journals and the Management of Information: The View from One Publisher's Window. Janet Fisher, Associate Director for Marketing, MIT Press, stated that she is still being asked to publish new paper journals. Not all editors are anxious to embrace the new electronic format. There is a lot of concern about licensing arrangements, the wide range of products available, and access to electronic formats. MIT Press worked with Michael O'Donnell at the University of Chicago on an idea for an electronic journal in computer science, which resulted in the development of the _Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science_. They hoped to learn how the academic community would accept an electronic jour- nal for tenure considerations and how abstracting and indexing would be handled. MIT Press would develop some in-house expertise with this new format and learn to understand the market and costs for such an endeavor. The journal is a refereed scholarly journal with a goal of six-week turna- round for peer review. Individual articles will be published as each is ready, and subscribers will be notified electronically of the availability of a new article. It will be indexed by _Mathematical Reviews_. Once pub- lished, articles will remain intact, corrections will have pointers to the original, revised articles may be published after going through peer re- view. Subscribers will sign onto an unmoderated listserv, and individual articles will be published as available. A notice of availability will be posted to the subscriber listserv. Annual subscription price is $30 for individuals, $125 for institutions. Ms. Fisher explained that there is very strong price resistance in the individual market, hence the large price differential. A paper document delivery service for non-subscribers will be availability through the MIT Document Delivery Service. The Press will supply electronic copies, maintaining LaTex and PostScript files for several years. MIT's Information Systems will store the LaTex source files and refresh them every five years. The MIT Document Service will receive PostScript files from which they will supply paper copies to non-subscribers. The Scholarly Journals project at Virginia Tech will receive both forms for storage. MIT has had to modify their subscription system to handle orders for this journal. They have established three email addresses, one to handle orders, one to handle payments, and one for general correspondence. They are, how- ever, pursuing their traditional marketing efforts. To date they have 12 subscribers, they expect to start publishing in the fall. The annual goal is to publish a group of articles which will approximate the number of those published in a traditional print journal. The e-mail address for orders is journals-orders@mit-edu. -- Document Delivery and Collection Management -- Strange Bedfellows? Mar- tha Whittaker, General Manager, The UnCover Company, selected this provoca- tive title to emphasize her belief that we should be designing systems to incorporate document delivery, publishers and collection managers in a partnership. Document delivery should be as widely accepted as interlibrary loan. She believes that document delivery has been accepted as a regular alterna- tive to ownership by libraries. Consider that today: access is a part of many collection development policies, "just in time" versus "just in case" has moved into mainstream thinking, it is easy to have unmediated document ordering by patrons, new and better technology is developed for document delivery. So far libraries are reporting considerable amounts of money saved on sub- scriptions; far less is being spent on document delivery. She also saw a role for UnCover as a service bureau for smaller e-publish- ers to mount their e-publications on the UnCover computer and be accessible with UnCover's search engine. Many libraries are still nervous about the best way to subscribe to electronic journals, so this service bureau/clear- inghouse concept would be beneficial to libraries as well. There are still some concerns regarding accreditation issues and personnel considerations. Document delivery is a very labor intensive operation. Still, an effective partnership between document delivery vendors and col- lection managers will result in better service to library patrons.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_ are made on the responsibility of the authors alone, and do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the editorial board, or the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published by the editor through the Office of Information Technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, Internet: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu; Paper mail: Serials Department, CB #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27514-8890; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-4450. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Janet Fisher (MIT Press), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State Universi- ty), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health Science Center), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Divi- sion). The Newsletter is available on the Internet, Blackwell's CONNECT, and Readmore's ROSS. EBSCO customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format. To subscribe to the newsletter send a message to LISTSERV@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU saying SUBSCRIBE PRICES [YOUR NAME]. Be sure to send that message to the listserver and not to Prices. You must include your name. To unsubscribe (no name required in message), you must send the message from the e-mail address by which you are subscribed. If you have problems, please contact the editor. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically. To get a list of available issues send a message to LISTSERV@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU saying INDEX PRICES. To retrieve a specific issue, the message should read: GET PRICES PRICES.xx (where "xx" is the number of the issue). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++