Summary of Serials Pricing Panel Discussion, SLA Annual Meeting, June 9, 1997.
Hosted by the Chemistry, Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics, and Science-Technology Divisions; sponsored by Elsevier Science. The discussion was moderated by Eleanor MacLean; speakers were Peter Gaviorino, American Chemical Society Publications Division; Allen Powell, EBSCO Subscription Service; and John Tagler, Elsevier Science.
Peter Gaviorino described end-user needs and expectations as forces driving the development of new modes of information delivery, with availability and pricing also affected by further costs incurred by the publisher for electronic journals and services. He recognized the increasing demands on library budgets and stated that the professional society publisher's role is to provide its membership with appropriately organized and packaged information together with quality control and archiving.
Allen Powell presented research on pricing trends, with an analysis of inflation and currency exchange rate effects on prices of domestic, UK and continental European STM journals. Price increases are also due to the proliferation of online journals, with 850 in February 1997 and 1300 titles now, in June. Figures show broad variation among publishers on pricing models for print, online, and combinations. EBSCO projects mean 1998 serial price inflation rates of 9-11.5%.
John Tagler described Elsevier's changing roles due to electronic publication, including new responsibilities for customer service and technical support, and the use of licensing to limit opportunities for illicit reproduction and dissemination of "first-quality" copies. He clarified that Elsevier's licensing is not intended to prevent non-affiliated users from "onsite" ("in-library") use. Long-term archiving is not contemplated by Elsevier; they expect involvement of publisher-library or third-party groups although there has been no move in that direction yet.
Questions form the audience followed. Objections were raised to continuing inflation and profit levels and to pricing models based on current subscriptions, due to flat-funded library budgets.
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Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997