NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES

NO 121 -- September 7, 1994

Editor: Marcia Tuttle

ISSN: 1046-3410

CONTENTS

121.2 DAWSON HOLDINGS PLC PURCHASE AGREEMENT ACCEPTED BY FAXON INC, Press release

121.3 NEW PUBLISHER REDUCES PRICE OF _THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY_, Rebecca Simon

121.4 ANOTHER NEW PUBLISHER LOWERS ANOTHER PRICE: _BLOOD CELLS_, Cindy Hepfer

121.5 POLITICS OF CANCELLATION -- NEUTRALIZE THE EFFECTS WITH USAGE STUDY, Carole Francq

121.6 NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE IN SCIENCE TIMES, Press release

Press release, Madelyn Bonnett, EBSCO Corporate Communications, 205 991-1184

September 1, 1994



BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - EBSCO has terminated its consideration of the acquisi-

tion of Faxon's non-U.S. operations, excluding Europe, and of the Turner 

subsidiary. The results of due diligence work by EBSCO and the subsequent 

efforts to set an agreement and to plan its legal conclusion in a timely 

fashion have not been satisfactory to EBSCO. Timeliness has been a major 

EBSCO concern and emphasis in this effort. Discussions and consideration of 

the possible acquisition of the non-U.S. operations, excluding Europe, and 

of Turner have ended.



EBSCO stands fully committed to international subscription service. EBSCO 

possesses strong operational and financial resources. The company has good 

working relationships with publishers. Customers are serviced locally 

through EBSCO's 28 regional offices worldwide. EBSCO is able and ready to 

respond to inquiries and to offer its services.

Diana Brewer, Faxon Company, brewer@faxon.com.

The following is the press release which Dawson is distributing today 

[September 2, 1994].



For more information contact:



Vernon W. Cain, President

Dawson Subscription Services

815-732-9001



Folkestone, U.K. -- Dawson Holdings PLC, a publicly traded worldwide sup-

plier of information services to the library community, jointly announced 

with The Faxon Company, Inc. their agreement for Dawson to acquire The 

Faxon Company and all Faxon subsidiaries. The purchase of Faxon will make 

Dawson the second largest library information services organization in the 

world.  



Westwood, Mass.-based Faxon President Judy Davis confirmed that "Faxon has 

accepted a Dawson Holdings PLC offer for the purchase of all of The Faxon 

Company."



Brian Ingleby, Group Chief Executive of Dawson Holdings PLC of Folkestone, 

UK says, "Dawson PLC has a record of service in the supply of information 

dating back to 1807. The acquisition of Faxon positions us for dynamic 

growth well into the next century." Collectively, sales will be in excess 

of a half billion dollars.



Says President and CEO of Dawson US Operations Vernon W. Cain, "The pur-

chase of Faxon is an exciting move for Dawson and a strategic one. It is 

the next logical step in our drive to lead the library information services 

industry." Both Dawson and Faxon are highly diversified, experienced sup-

pliers of information services to the international library purchasing 

community.  



According to Cain the acquisition of Faxon will add considerable stability 

and reliability to the library information services supply industry as well 

as continuity of supply and services to the purchasing community.



It is anticipated that this agreement will be concluded shortly. "Dawson 

will be providing interim support to Faxon, and looks forward to meeting 

and working with the Faxon clients on a one on one basis," said Cain.

Rebecca Simon, University of California Press, rrs@uclink.berkeley.edu

University of California Press is pleased to announce a price reduction for 

_The Sociological Quarterly_. This year, libraries will be able to order 

the journal for $10 less than last year. The 1995 subscription rate for 

domestic institutions is $135 (compared to $145 in 1994) and $141 for for-

eign institutions. _The Sociological Quarterly_ may be ordered through 

subscription agents or from University of California Press directly.

Cindy Hepfer, University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library, hslcindy@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu.

I received an interesting letter yesterday I want to share with you for the 

Newsletter. The text of the letter follows. I find the Foundation's goal of 

lowering the price now and continuing to lower it as they pick up new sub-

scribers to be very noble and notable. With an expanded scope and reader-

ship, though, I can't help but wonder if the size of the journal will in-

crease, thus costing more to produce. It will be interesting to monitor the 

price and size of this title in coming years. In any event, I am sure 

health science librarians will applaud and support Dr. Beutler.  



Incidentally, I just wrote Regina Reynolds at NSDP about the Foundation's 

intent to change the title to reflect a broader scope, but have the ISSN 

remain the same. I'm not sure they'll get that wish!



***************************************************************************

                          Blood Cells Foundation

                            Ernest Beutler, MD

                  The Scripps Research Institute (SBR-3)

                       10666 North Torrey Pines Road

                            La Jolla, CA 92037

                           Phone: (619)554-8040

                            Fax: (619)554-6927



August 12, 1994



Health Sciences Library

State Univ of NY at Buffalo

Abbott Hall

3435 Main Street

Buffalo, NY 14214-3002



Dear Subscriber:



A bill for your 1995 subscription to _Blood Cells_ is enclosed. _Blood 

Cells_ has recently been acquired from Springer Verlag by the non-profit 

Blood Cells Foundation. The journal will continue to publish high quality 

contributions in the field of hematology, and will broaden the scope of 

hematologic topics to be offered. Accordingly, the name of the journal will 

be amended to _Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases_. It is our intention 

to have the ISSN number of the journal remain as 0340-4684.



Because of the non-profit status of the foundation and because we expect to 

greatly expand the readership of the journal, we are taking the unusual 

step of _lowering_ the subscription price from $169 to $159. Postage and 

handling will continue to be $10 in the U.S. and will be $20 outside the 

U.S. We hope that further and more substantial reductions in the subscrip-

tion price will be possible as our subscriber list grows. In the meanwhile, 

we hope that we may count on your continued support. Checks for subscrip-

tions should be made out to Blood Cells Foundation and sent to:



Ernest Beutler, M.D.

Blood Cells Foundation

The Scripps Research Institute (SBR-3)

10666 North Torrey Pines Road

La Jolla, CA 92037



                                      Very sincerely yours,



                                      Jane P. Verenini

                                      Res. Admin. Assist.

                                        to Ernest Beutler, M.D.

Carole Francq, Indiana University Ruth Lilly Medical Library CFRANCQ@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU

There are collection management tools that are easier to implement than 

dealing with infuriated faculty trying to out guess you. No need to appear 

capricious or playing favorites. No need to apologize for subscription 

cancellations, when you are empowered with collection usage facts. What can 

be more obvious than journal usage/cost statistics, especially two years or 

more of circulation or reshelving data.



It takes planning, effort, and some expertise -- the kind of things on 

which a bright, untenured librarian can build a tenure case. And yes, a 

usage/cost study takes some seed money (barcode readers, barcodes, staff to 

barcode volumes, some basic programming for the barcode readers). We auto-

mated a usage/cost study with $6,414 of equipment and supplies which we 

recouped with the first report. We hired a programmer with some experience 

and between jobs, who was asking us for work by the hour. 



Our process is simple and NOT a cost-per-use study, which requires a full 

year's subscription price for every publication year in the usage study.



For details, see "Bottoming Out the Bottomless Pit with the Journal Usage/ 

Cost Relational Index" by Carole Francq in _Technical Services Quarterly_, 

Vol. 11(4)1994: 13-26.



I sympathize with Bill Miller and Florida Atlantic University. Indiana 

University's Ruth Lilly Medical Library was fortunate to have manual, then 

automated, journal reshelving statistics. We credit our good fortune to the 

usage/cost data for each title, the major factor in avoiding intense facul-

ty irratation with the cancellations we made.

Press release from Gordon and Breach Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 200029 Riverfront Plaza Station, Newark NJ 07102-0301; 201 643-7500.

      August 23, 1994



    NT TIMES INCORRECTLY REPORTS THAT GORDON & BREACH LAWSUIT DISMISSED



An article in the Science Times section of the NY Times on August 16 incor-

rectly reported that the lawsuit of Gordon & Breach Publishers, Inc. 

against the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society 

was dismissed. The suit contends that the societies had issued false and 

misleading surveys comparing cost and citation frequency of their journals 

with those of commercial publishers. The court held that if the societies 

used those surveys to promote either the sale of their journals or deci-

sions to publish with them, then federal law could be violated. The court 

ordered that the case should continue to give Gordon & Breach the opportun-

ity to prove that the societies in fact used the surveys in this way. Once 

this issue is proved, the case will proceed to determine whether the sur-

veys are false and misleading, which Gordon & Breach is confident it will 

establish.



Gordon & Breach also reiterates that it has [sic] and remains willing to 

resolve the dispute if the societies will agree to some form of peer review 

of its cost comparison studies. Gordon & Breach was surprised to learn that 

no peer review had occurred when the surveys were first issued, and remains 

surprised that the societies are not willing to discuss peer review for 

future surveys. According to Gordon & Breach "the only conclusion we can 

draw is that the societies know that they are using a methodology for com-

paring their journals with ours that is so misleading that no independent 

reviewer will agree with it." The company also noted that a judge in Swit-

zerland where G&B's main headquarters are located had agreed that the soci-

eties should obtain a third party opinion about its surveys before publish-

ing a new one, but that the societies had rejected this approach.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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), Christian Boissonnas (Cornell 

University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Janet Fisher (MIT 

Press), Fred Friend (University College, London), Charles Hamaker (Louisi-

ana State University), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health Science 

Center), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Black-

well's Periodicals Division). 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@UNC.EDU saying 

SUBSCRIBE PRICES [YOUR NAME]. Be sure to send that message to the listserv-

er 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@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). 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++