NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES

NO 146 -- October 20, 1995

Editor: Marcia Tuttle

ISSN: 1046-3410


CONTENTS

146.1 ELSEVIER SCIENCE RESPONSE TO ISSUE #144, John Tagler

146.2 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE TITLES, Sandy Gurshman

146.4 ALA ALCTS FIRST STEP AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT, Catherine Nelson

146.1 ELSEVIER SCIENCE RESPONSE TO ISSUE #144

John Tagler, Director of Corporate Communications, Elsevier Science, New York, j.tagler@smtphost.elsevier.com.

[Received October 4, 1995.]

Issue no. 144 of the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_
included a number of comments on Elsevier Science's letter on
1996 prices as well as other pricing-related matters. I would
like to make some brief comments on issues raised.

o    There is no currency exchange windfall for Elsevier Science
     on exchange rates. The rates we apply to our subscriptions
     are the average rates we have received in twelve monthly
     contracts with banks. The banks take the currency risk and
     reap any benefits; we are publishers, not currency exchange
     speculators.

o    The U.S. dollar is the most widely-used currency in payments
     to Elsevier Science and there has been a strong preference
     expressed to us for U.S. dollar remittances from customers
     in Canada, Mexico and South America. Many Canadian customers
     have told us they maintain U.S. dollar accounts to
     streamline payment processing wherever U.S. dollar payments
     can be made. We continue, however, to evaluate ways of
     minimizing currency conversion problems for all parties.

o    As to questions relating to our decision to absorb 5% of the
     currency fluctuation on selected titles, North America is
     our single largest market -- not only in subscription sales
     but also in terms of editors and authors. North America is
     also the geographic area where we continue to make the most
     significant strides in rolling out electronic products.  

     Given the degree to which the dollar was impacted this year
     well as the currency's troubled history over the past
     decade, it seemed reasonable to lessen the impact of this
     recent further downturn in the exchange rate via a one-time
     5% absorption of part of the exchange rate increase.
 
     The absorption of 5% of the currency increase was also
     something that we could achieve in a single market using a
     single currency for payment, regardless of where and through
     whom a subscription is purchased. Elsevier Science sells
     into more than 100 countries worldwide, each using different
     currencies and with different dynamics relative to the five
     countries where we publish and whose currencieswe use for
     invoicing our journals. To evaluate the effects of currency
     fluctuation on a myriad of different currencies and to
     further factor in the purchasing and distribution channels
     involved was unfeasible.

o    Finally, as suggested by Fred Friend, it is appropriate to
     consider all alternatives and we are, in fact, evaluating
     distributed printing and mailing operations to improve speed
     of delivery. At the same time, there are production quality
     control issues that must be considered such as editorial,
     desk editorial, fulfillment and distribution. Printing is
     only part of the cost structure for producing a journal and
     printing cost alone cannot be the determining factor in
     selecting a country in which to publish. The infrastructure
     and expertise necessary to produce a high-quality scientific
     journal cannot be rotated about according to which country's
     currency offers the most favorable exchange rate for the
     current season.

We appreciate the continued input from the library community and
welcome all direct letters as well.

146.2 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE TITLES

Sandy Gurshman, Readmore, Inc., gurshman@readmore.com.

[Received September 28, 1995.]

We seem to have another situation like the Raven/Leibert title
transfer of a couple of years ago.

Associated Publishers of Gainesville has been publishing two
titles for the American Entomological Institute: _Memoirs of...._
and_Contributions of...._

In March we received notice that they were suspending these
titles and beginning two new titles: _Memoirs on Entomology_ and
_Contributions on Entomology_, which were to start "from where
the publication of" the other two titles was stopped by
Associated Publishers, and the volume numbers were to continue
"to cause the least problems in library cataloguing, etc." (I
don't make this up!)

We just received notice from the Institute that they were
themselves continuing to publish the original titles.

Phone numbers and e-mail addresses:
     Associated Publishers: 904-371-4071
(vgupta@gnv.1fas.ufl.edu)
     American Entomological Inst: 904-377-6458
(dbwahl@delphi.com)
----------

PS. In the meantime, Associated Publishers have apparently
reconsidered their numbering, and have begun with vol 1. 

146.3 CLARIFICATION OF 1995 JOURNAL PRICES

Rebecca Simon, Manager, Journals Division, University of California Press, rrs@violet.berkeley.edu.

Since we have received several phone calls regarding
institutional price increases for two of our journals,
_Representations_ and _The Federal Sentencing Reporter_, I
thought it would be useful to let your readers know that in both
cases, the reason for the increase was to provide additional
support for the editorial offices. This necessitated increases of
close to 20% over the previous year's prices. However, we fully
anticipate that current subscription prices of $80 for
_Representations_ and $130 for _The Federal Sentencing
Reporter_ will provide for the enhanced support and that any
future price increases will be more moderate.

146.4 ALA ALCTS FIRST STEP AWARD
ANNOUNCEMENT

Catherine Nelson, University of California at Santa Barbara, nelson@ariz.library.ucsb.edu.

               CALLING ALL NEW SERIAL LIBRARIANS AND OTHERS
                        INTERESTED IN SERIALS WORK!

The FIRST STEP Award, sponsored by the Serials Section of the
Association of Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS)
and underwritten by John Wiley & Co., is open for nominations for
the coming year. THE DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS IS DECEMBER 1,
1995.

The award is a professional development grant -- the purpose is
to provide librarians new to the serials field an opportunity to
broaden their perspective and to encourage professional
development in ALA conferences and participation in the Serials
Section of ALCTS.

REQUIREMENTS:  Any ALA member with five or fewer years experience
in the serials field, who has not previously attended an ALA
Annual Conference is eligible. A $1,500 grant donated by Wiley is
applicable toward round trip transportation, lodging, and
registration fees.

NOMINATION PROCEDURE: Applicants should submit a current resume,
cover letter and two written references to:

                  Mary Ann Itoga
                  Chair, First Step Award Committee
                  University Libraries
                  Cataloging Management Team
                  The Pennsylvania State University
                  E506 Pattee Library
                  University Park, PA  16802-1805

                  Fax:  814-863-7293     Voice:  814-86501755
                  Email: mai@psulias.psu.edu

          FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT MARY ANN OR CALL ALCTS AT
                 1-800-545-2433  ext.5037 (Shonda Russell) 
NOTE!  ALL REFERENCES AND PAPERWORK MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE
DEADLINE IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED -- APPLICANTS ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR INFORMING THEIR REFERENCES OF THIS CONDITION. THANKS.

146.5 FULL-TEXT ACCESS TO KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS JOURNAL ARTICLES

Press Release, dated September 1995.

  
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, [is] first to sign
agreement with Pica, Centre for Library Automation in Leiden, on
electronic access of full text journal articles within the WebDOC
pilot project.
   
Within the WebDOC project, initiated by Pica, a number of Dutch
and German academic libraries will cooperate with commercial
publishers to offer their endusers access to electronic journal
articles.
  
Publishers will deliver SGML-headers of journal articles
containing bibliographic data and abstracts. From these data,
Pica will build a catalogue (WebCAT) linking to full text
articles stored on local servers maintained by the information
providers or on a server at Pica's.
  
Initially, the Kluwer journals to be accessed will be mainly in
the field of Mathematics, Information Science and
Economics/Business Information.
  
For the time being, document formats are restricted to
Postscript, PDF, HTML and TIFF-images. Kluwer has opted for PDF
files.
  
Documents will be made accessible via WWW-browsers such as MOSAIC
and Netscape to endusers who are registered at one of the
participating libraries. Endusers of libraries that are
subscribing to journals Kluwer makes available in WebDOC will
have unlimited access, whereas a pay-per-view system will apply
for journals to which there is no subscription.
  
Pica is building the technical infrastructure to arrange access
toWebCAT and to the document servers including the accounting
mechanisms which control the access.
  
WebDOC is expected to go live on January 1, 1996 and will run for
an initial trial period until the end of December 1997. At that
time, the project will be evaluated and will be continued if the
results are as planned.
  
  Libraries that have agreed to participate are:
  * in The Netherlands
  -  Royal Library, The Hague
  -  University Library Groningen
  -  University Library Utrecht
  -  Library of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam
  -  University Library Nijmegen
  -  Library of the Limburg University, Maastricht
  -  Library of the Technical University Twente, Enschede
  
  * in Germany
  -  Hamburg University Library   
  -  Gottingen University Library
  -  University Library Oldenburg
  -  Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt
  -  TIB Hannover
  
It is expected that more libraries and publishers will follow in
the course of the project.
  
Further information can be obtained from:
  
  Kluwer Academic Publishers         Pica      
  Mr M. van der Linden               Mr M. Dekkers
  P.O. Box 17                        P.O. Box 876
  3300 AA Dordrecht                  2300 AW Leiden
  tel. +31 78 (6) 392 392            tel. +31 71 (5) 257 257
  fax  +31 78 (6) 392 254
  E-mail: vanderlinden@wkap.nl

 
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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 University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
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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 (Louisiana State
University), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health Science
Center), Michael Markwith (Swets North America), James Mouw
(University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell'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.

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