======================================================================== Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 19:21 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NS 3 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES N.S. NUMBER 3 -- JUNE 5, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle ACRL COPYING FEE, Yvonne Wulff EBSCO PREDICTS MODERATE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE INCREASES FOR 1991, submitted by Laura A. Ralstin DAVID MERMAN'S "PUBLISHING IN COMPUTOPIA," Deana Astle REVISITED -- AGAIN, Ann Okerson RESPONSE FROM EDITOR OF , Kim Parker LETTER FROM HAWORTH PRESS ABOUT INVOICES, Sent by Ron Akie TASK FORCE REPORT TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, Susan Ballinger FROM THE MAILBOX HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET I understand that everybody got five copies of the last issue. So did I! I'm sorry. Here's what happened, according to our postman (expurga- tions by editor): Here's the scoop: Someone whose id is [DELETED BY ED.] added herself to the list. Unfortunately, through no fault of hers, the address added was malformed. We (PRICES-L) saw it as [SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT]. When PRICES-L was used to send the newsletter to everyone on the list, she was sent a copy as well. So far, so good. But when [GATEWAY] received the newsletter, it couldn't interpret the address. Their mailer rejected the newsletter and tried to return it to PRICES-L. You all got a copy. PRICES-L then sent the rejection to [PROBLEM ID]. Endless loop. I have since removed [PROBLEM ID] from the PRICES-L list. No [PROBLEM ID] no loop. Thanks to your early reactions, we corrected the problem on Monday morning, June 3. However, one or more copies were still in the loop and they were delivered. Thank you for your patience and your humor during this situation. This is an example of why I prefer to have you subscribe through me. We may eliminate the option of self-subscribing. Issue NS2 was the last one distributed to about 55 mailboxes on Fax- on's DataLinx. Here is some of the message I sent those subscribers: ...the only reason for discontinuing this "edition" is the four or five hours required for the editor to rekey each issue. When we began the newsletter in February 1989, not a lot of librarians used BITNET/The Internet. Now, however, we do, and it is much more satisfactory to receive a document than 30 - 40 screens of information. Also, I can use the keying time to better advantage soliciting articles and editing contributions. Thank you for being a DataLinx subscriber.... The Society for Scholarly Publishing held its annual meeting in late May in Philadelphia. I missed last year's meeting, but this year the atmosphere was, to me, far better than two years ago. This time there was no (public, at least!) bashing of anybody, but a sense of working together to resolve the problems besetting all of us. As a last-minute stand-in I led a discussion group of seven publishers trying to decide which of eleven possible types of journals to cut in an already-cut- to-the-bone library. I was heartened by their uniformly sympathetic and understanding discussions. They may have thought "Anybody's jour- nals but mine," but they didn't say so! They worked through the case study just as librarians do in real situations, considering short- and long-term implications, sacred cows, regional and subject obligations in resource sharing, document delivery, and very high priced subscrip- tions. This group made me feel that there is hope for us still. In a near-future issue we will have a report on the conference. ACRL COPYING FEE Yvonne Wulff, University of Michigan, USERGB33@UMICHUM.BITNET. A faculty member just sent me a copy of her spring reading list. The course uses readings from some ACRL publications, or, used to would be more accurate. ACRL currently charges $11 per page for permission to copy from C&RL NEWS and from COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES. If that fee seem excessive (even outrageous?), write to President Barbara Ford right away. There should still be time for the policy to make the Atlanta agenda of the ACRL Board meeting. EBSCO PREDICTS MODERATE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE INCREASES FOR 1991 Article to appear in "At Your Service," EBSCO's newsletter for cus- tomers; submitted by Laura A. Ralstin, Communications Coordinator, EBSCO, Birmingham AL. Academic and medical libraries may pay from 9 to 12 percent more for serials subscriptions in 1992 due to expected publisher price increas- es, according to projections developed by EBSCO Subscription Services. These projections are based on general economic indicators in the US and Europe as well as discussions with major publishers throughout the world. Subscriptions to serials published in the US could cost these librar- ies about 9 percent more in 1992 than in 1991; subscriptions to Euro- pean publications could cost up to 12 percent more. However, the actu- al effect of these price increases on libraries' overall subscription lists will depend on the mix of European and US titles subscribed to, since the prices of European titles are predicted to increase at a higher rate. Of course, the purchasing power of currency used to buy serials will be a major factor in determining the total effect of serial price increases on library budgets. And, although many economic signs show the US dollar strengthening, experience dictates a conservative bud- geting policy may be the best strategy for US libraries.... HISTORICAL DATA. The cost of a typical academic title list has in- creased by almost 60 percent over the last five years, according to an analysis of selected EBSCO academic customer accounts. A collective list of 7,680 titles that cost $891,077 in January 1987 cost $1,413,739 in January of this year. The cost of an academic list has increased by an average of 14.6 percent each year over the last five years. The average price of an academic title has increased from about $116 in 1987 to $184 this year. The combined cost of all INDEX MEDICUS(tm) titles increased by approx- imately 19 percent from 1990 to 1991 according to preliminary findings from EBSCO's INDEX MEDICUS Price Study. The cost of US published ti- tles in INDEX MEDICUS appears to have increased by 12 percent during the same period. It should be noted that titles published outside the US (the titles which are generally most expensive) make up 62 percent of the INDEX.... HEDGING AGAINST CURRENCY FLUCTUATION. EBSCO usually pays publishers in October and November for subscriptions with January start dates, therefore any projections made must take into account the predicted strength of the currency used to purchase serials in October. Since October of last year, the dollar has been steadily gaining strength; by March of this year it had gained 4.4 percent against a bread basket of five major European currencies (British pound, German mark, Dutch guilder, Swiss franc and French franc). In April, this strengthening trend continued and the dollar climbed another 8.57 percent. Compared to October 1990, the dollar is 12.56 percent stronger. This 12.56 precent increase in the dollar's value is approximately equal to the predicted publisher price increases for European publications. Therefore, if this trend continues, price in- creases for European serials could have little or no effect on US libraries this year. Conversely, the trend could have a negative im- pact on European libraries which subscribe to many US publications.... Non-US academic and medical libraries should use the predicted value of local currency as measured against the dollar and major European currencies along with the basic rate of increase in publisher prices predicted in this article to prepare upcoming budgets.... DAVID MERMAN'S "PUBLISHING IN COMPUTOPIA" Deana Astle, Clemson University, DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET. David Merman has published a very interesting opinion piece in the May 1991 issue of PHYSICS TODAY, entitled "Publishing in Computopia." He posits that electronic communication has made journals obsolete. He states, "In a rational world, paper, printing, postage and PRL (PHYS- ICS REVIEW LETTERS) would never have crossed my mind (for distribution of his paper). I would simply have e-mailed my essay to a central clearinghouse for posting on its electronic bulletin board....After calling up for inspection the abstracts of titles that caught their interest, readers could call up copies of entire articles, even print- ing them out on the rare occasions they promised to repay careful study." In answering the criticism that this would be unfair distribu- tion since not everyone has access to the networks, he states, "Non- sense! Even fewer people have access to preprints, the current avenue of serious communication; nothing could be more unfair than the way we now do business." The scientific community would not suffer greatly from the lack of refereeing for these papers, he comments. "Readers would have to de- cide for themselves whether a paper was rubbish....Because none of us are saints, current refereeing is so ineffectual that this is already unnecessary. Under the new system readers would simply have to sift through a somewhat larger pile." He concludes, "The fact is that journals are obsolete except as ar- chival repositories....Our failure to recognize the obsolescence of journals has restricted effective scientific communication to in- groups and cliques and is destroying our libraries. The sooner we get rid of journals the better....Why do we still live this way? What are we waiting for?" Citation: David Mermin, "Publishing in Computopia," PHYSICS TODAY 44 (May 1991): 9, 11. REVISITED -- AGAIN Ann Okerson, Office of Scholarly and Academic Publishing, Associa- tion of Research Libraries, OKERSON@UMDC.BITNET. You might be interested in an excerpt from the most recent letter from Birkhauser, the publisher of INSECTES SOCIAUX: 16 May 1991 Dear Ms. Okerson: It can be officially said that the IUSSI decided upon the change of publisher on 8th August 1990 at the meeting of its delegates on the occasion fo the 11th IUSSI Congress in Bangalore (India). Besides Birkhauser, there were other publishers interested in "Insectes Sociaux" and in the competition. Masson knew of the IUSSI's plans and could have informed its representatives in time. After Birkhauser received the award, the contract still needed to be negotiated so that we could not begin informing the libraries until September 1990. Thanks to the IUSSI's strong support, we were able to find out who had subscribed until 1990. We wrote to all of these addresses, alhtough unfortunately most of the libraries and subscription agencies reacted very slowly, probably because they had already paid Masson for 1991. We wrote to these libraries a total of three times and also sent them issue 1 (1991). We will undertake nothing further; those who did not pay Birkhauser for their subscriptions will not receive the next issues (issue 2 will appear in June). Unfortunately, we cannot help those who have paid Masson. They must request their money from Masson themselves. If there are any libraries we did not write to, they are not known by us as subscribers and should contact us. Yours faithfully, BIRKHAUSER VERLAG Dr. Andreas Bally Biology Editor RESPONSE FROM EDITOR OF Kimberly Parker, Kline Science Library, Yale University, Kim_Parker. sml@yccatsmtp.ycc.yale.edu. I am sending you the reply I have received from the editor of the BIOCHEMICAL JOURNAL. This was in answer to my complaint about their publishing the Reviews reprint. [See Newsletter #37.] Dear Kimberly Parker: I was sorry to receive your letter of April 15 criticising the BIOCHEMICAL JOURNAL REVIEWS COMPENDIUM. Clearly the usefulness or not of such a volume is a matter for individual opinion; I can only say that yours is the only such letter I received, and, indeed, I have just returned form the FASEB meeting in Atlanta where the COMPENDIUM was one of the most popular of our publica- tions and a number of favourable comments were received. Natural- ly we will take all views into account before deciding whether to repeat the exercise next year, but at the moment I have to say that it is looking likely that we will do so. I was particularly surprised to see that you proposed to discard the volume. If you are in the habit of discarding material you consider "unnecessary," I suggest that instead you offer it to the appropriate departmental library or donate it to a less well- endowed institution; I can provide addresses of a number of third-world universities to whom we, and other publishers, regu- larly send material. Yours sincerely, Dr. A.S. Beedle Managing Editor The BIOCHEMICAL JOURNAL LETTER FROM HAWORTH PRESS ABOUT INVOICES Sent to the newsletter by Ron Akie, Publisher & Publications Servic- es, The Faxon Company, Westwood MA. re: renewal notice mistakedly called "invoice" Dear Colleagues; Several weeks ago, your library received a consolidated renewal letter from Haworth for forthcoming journals that are ON TIME and which are up for renewal for the Fall 1991/January 1992 season -- BUT: a) We regretfully had pre-printed forms which called this renewal letter an INVOICE instead of a RENEWAL LETTER. b) To libraries which use the FAXON Company: we owe both you and FAXON sincere apology. We have been told by our liaison at FAXON that: - an "invoice" implies that a subscription agency did not pay a subscription renewal which it was supposed to. - a "renewal notice" is, instead, simply just that -- the normal "reminder of renewal" which most libraries, if they utilize an agency, just throw away. c) Mr. Ron Akie at FAXON recently wrote to you describing our set-up for renewals for Haworth Press. The description of this set-up for this renewal system is entirely accurate. It was prepared with Mr. Akie's assistance. d) With Mr. Akie's help, we have an excellent relationship with FAXON. If any librarians thought that there were journal renewals due that FAXON did not remit -- this is not the case. We apologize once again for this grevious error and take full responsibility for this. e) Some librarians (and agencies) ask us why we bother to send out renewal notices at all when a library uses an agency. The answer is several-fold: - We have no foreknowledge of when a library may "switch" from ordering direct to utilizing an agency; when they might do the reverse; and when they might transfer a section of their journals from one agent to another. We ANTICIPATE that libraries that are in a "no change" situation will simply throw away the renewal notice. When a library "re-writes" its orders in any fashion, they then use our renewal notice as a useful document. - Sometimes there is a change in a ship-to address. These are often marked on our renewal notice and sent back to use directly. Agen- cies also do this -- it is simply a "double-check." - We sometimes include announcements of new books related to seri- als librarianship, including special discount offers for these books. f) Haworth is preparing a bi-monthly "Journal Schedule/Dispatch Sheet" which we hope will be useful to avoid unnecessary claiming or to make sure you can receive a free replacement copy of stolen or missing issues. We hope you will find this useful. Many thanks for your patience and understanding! Again, our apologies for some mis-understanding which we know had taken place, and our appreciation in advance for your acceptance of our apologies. With good wishes, Bill Cohen Publisher TASK FORCE REPORT TELLS IT LIKE IT IS Susan Ballinger. Reprinted from "Library Staff Newsletter" at the University Carolina at Chapel Hill. The University Libraries Task Force, chaired by Dr. Donald Kennedy of the English Department, has submitted its report to the university administration....The report is divided into three sections: THE CON- DITION OF THE LIBRARIES, SOURCES OF FUNDS, and RECOMMENDATIONS. The information contained in the section on the condition of the libraries is familiar to most of us -- it emphasizes the decline in the librar- ies' buying power since 1985. Sources of funds discussed include the state, the campus administration, and fund-raising activities. The recommendations are divided into short-term involving the state, short-term involving the campus, and long-term. Many figures are quot- ed, and there is a lengthy and involved discussion of the allocation of overhead monies....Below are several excerpts from the report. In the Academic Affairs Library the materials budget increased a total of only 4.9 percent for the three years from FY 1987-88 to FY 1990-91. During this period the cost of serials and books increased at a rate of 40.9 percent and 29 percent respectively ....The Library is now acquiring books at the rate of a good undergraduate college, but not at the rate of a major university .... Not only have the libraries been inadequately funded for materi- als ... and staff, but the University also has not yet made the major financial commitment to technology which is becoming essen- tial for major libraries....If this technological support is not provided, within the next ten years the University will be unable to compete with peer institutions for faculty, students, and outside funding. The University Administration and the General Administration must make every effort to get additional funding from the State. Most of the damage of the past five years is permanent, and the gaps in the libraries' collections will be even more pronounced than those that resulted from the Reconstruction era. The Task Force is encouraged by efforts at fund raising, and by the Administration's allotment of $20,000,000 from the Bicenten- nial Campaign ... for an endowment for the libraries....And al- though the endowment ... will help the libraries with special needs [it] will not be a substitute for adequate support from the State. A $20,000,000 endowment would give the libraries only an additional $800,000 a year in expendable income. The Task Force hopes that the State will provide in the next biennium the additional funding for the libraries the Administra- tion has requested, that it will remove the 5 percent sales tax on books and serials, and that it will soon at least begin to phase out the 30 percent share it takes from overhead for re- search grants. The Task Force also believes that the UNC-CH Administration can and should do more to support the libraries by re-allocating existing funds and by finding new sources of income. In the past funding for the libraries does not appear to have been a high priority. The Task Force was disturbed to learn 1) that for many years only 3.2 percent of General and Educational Expenditures for this campus had been spent on libraries ... and that this percentage had dropped to 2.9 percent last year, and 2) that the percentage of overhead the Administration has been giving the libraries during the past several years is considerably less than they once received. This report suggests a number of ways for the Administration to find additional funds for the libraries. The most promising sources would be inclusive student fees, if ap- proved by General Administration, and additional support from overhead income, since the amount of overhead received by the University is increasing annually. Other suggestions, such as the surcharge on tickets, support from the Athletic Deartment, and control of the photocopy machines, should also be investigated. The reputation of the University and its ability to attract stud- ents, faculty, and support for research is dependent on the qual- ity of its libraries. The Administration should do everything it can to correct a situation that has become intolerable to stud- ents and faculty. FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. From Yvonne Wulff, University of Michigan (Yvonne_Wulff@um.cc.umich. edu): The American Physical Society formed a Task Force on Electronic Information Systems in 1988. Their report appears in APS REPORTS, v. 36, no. 4 (1991). The report reviews current technology relat- ed to electronic publishing, proposes a long range objective for APS publishing and envisions a remarkable future for scientific publishing. Must reading for everyone thinking about these is- sues. From Richard M. Dougherty, President, American Library Association (USERGBTH@UMICHUM.BITNET): I have great admiration for Chuck Hamaker. He is usually at the cutting issue of issues, but I'm afraid he isn't aware of what ALA has been doing in relation to promoting the NREN. ALA has devoted an enormous amount of energy to spreading the word about the NREN. With considerable help from the Washington office, it's no longer common for librarians to say "NREN? NREN what?" Only a year ago NREN was a term that few were familiar with. That is no longer the case. It took considerable effort to convince Senator Gore to come to ALA and speak about his vision of the NREN. And, it hasn't been a breeze to convince legislators to recognize that we librarians have a great deal to contribute. If the role of librarians is recognized in the legislation that passes, all of us ought to thank the influence of our Association. From Keith Stetson, Fairfield University (KSTETSON@FAIR1.BITNET): As a direct subscriber to SHEPARD'S CONNECTICUT CITATIONS (ISSN: 0730-3688), we recently received an issue of SHEPARD'S CONNECTI- CUT EXPRESS CITATIONS (ISSN: 1055-9507), followed by an invoice. Shepard's produces similar titles for most states. The Citations is a cumulative bimonthly. The Express Citations, a monthly, "updates, but does not replace" Citations. Each bimonthly Cita- tions cumulates the previous Citations and Express Citations. The first issue of Connecticut's Express Citations was published January 1990. I assume we were sent the current issue and an invoice as a Citations subscriber that had not picked up the Express Citations. Although Express Citations is only $90 a year, plus s & h, I think that Citations alone is perfectly adequate for a library that does not support a law school. From Bill Britten, University of Tennessee, (britten@utklib.lib.utk. edu): Chuck Hamaker reported in the last newsletter on a 4 year use study at LSU showing that 43 percent of the collection had circu- lated during the period. From this data Mr. Hamaker concluded that the old rule of thumb that 20 percent of the collection accounts for 80 percent of the circulations was not valid at LSU, or for longitudinal studies in general. I have reported in two journal articles on a use study covering the period 1982 to 1989 (see cites below). The data from these studies revealed that while over 44 percent of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville collection circulated during the period, the most-used 20 percent accounted for just over 80 percent of that class's use. A collection manager could note vast differences in the degree of balance of use for LC classes. Britten, William, and Webster, Judith. "Class Relationships: Circulation Data, Collection Development Priorities, and Funding for the Future." THE BOTTOM LINE 4 (Spring 1990): 8-11. Britten, William. "A Use Statistic for Collection Management: The 80/20 Rule Revisited." LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS: PRACTICE AND THEORY 14 (1990): 183-89. From Deana Astle, Clemson University, (DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET): "British publisher Robert Maxwell says he expects his NEW YORK DAILY NEWS `will make a profit by the end of the year or at the latest by the first quarter [of 1992].' "Maxwell bought the moneylosing tabloid in March from Tribune Co., during a crippling strike by the newspaper's unions. Speak- ing at a National Press Club lunch in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Maxwell said the News' circulation has returned to pre-strike levels, which would be more than 1 million copies a day, and costs have been cut 30 percent. Maxwell, set to retire as chair- man of Maxwell Communication Corp. in July, also said he planned to introduce color printing at the DAILY NEWS in two or three years." --USA TODAY, May 31, 1991, p. 2B. From Joel Baron, The Faxon Company (DataLinx: JBARON): I thought you'd like to know that the inventory for the current issue of INDEX MEDICUS has been "frozen" by the Superintendent of Documents office. Apparently there was some old data in the issue and it should not have been included. The office in Washington was a little unclear of exactly what was wrong. In any event, the error has apparently been corrected, and new inventory is due in momentarily. We don't know if they will auto- matically replace copies that got into circulation from the first printing or not, but I will let you know as soon as we find out. Faxon orders are all being filled from the second printing, so our clients won't have a problem ... other than a late issue. HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University, NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. Questions about 1992 subscription price levels continue to be a major concern, and although it is still very early, there are some general guidelines to be aware of. With the dollar at present levels, Elsevier appears to be talking about a 12 percent increase in journal prices in guilders. With the dollar at current levels, that means a 1.5 percent increase in the US dollar price. If other companies in Europe follow suit, what does that mean for the overall mix of titles the typical academic library holds? An analysis of the Faxon Academic pricing data from 1974/75 to 1990/91 suggests an average price increase of 10.05 percent per year, plus or minus 3.74 percent. The standard deviation (.037447) can be accounted for each year by one of two factors, or a combination of them. Inflation rate and dollar fluctuation. In looking at the US Periodical Price Index for the same period of time, the price increase has been 10.91 percent plus or minus 1.89 percent. Which suggests that we can expect a low US figure of 9.02 percent and a high of 12.80. The highest levels were reached from 1974/75 to 1980- /81, suggesting higher levels occurred during high CPI periods, with lower ranges since 83/84. With, of course, the exception of last year, when the LJ periodical prices article logged 11.67 percent, the high- est rate of inflation in US titles since the bad inflationary early 80s. So, take your pick and your poison. As much as 40 percent of locally experienced price increases could be from foreign pricing, in which case what you really have to worry about this year is forecast- ing what the domestic budget will do. Personally, my crystal ball hopes for under 10 percent for 1992 for LSU. Say, maybe, just maybe, 8 percent, but that's intuition. Make sure the Academic Officers of your institution see the lead arti- cle in the May 22, 1991 issue of the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION. By Carolyn J. Mooney, the title may not catch their attention, but the content should: "Efforts to Cut Amount of 'Trivial' Scholarship Win New Backing From Many Academics" cites the president of Stanford Uni- versity proposing, among other things, that Stanford limit the number of publications candidates for tenure and promotion can submit to panels that evaluate them. Peter E. Wagner, provost at SUNY-Bingham- ton, is also noted: "If Stanford's doing it, that might help." Stan- ford's Kennedy told the university that overproduction "of routine scholarship is one of the most egregious aspects of contemporary aca- demic life.... It tends to conceal really important work by its sheer volume, it wastes time and valuable resources, and it is a major con- tributor to the inflation of academic library costs." My comment: was Karen Hunter right?? (i.e., our institutions create our libraries' problems!) At the ASERL (Association of Southeastern Research Libraries) Direc- tors meeting at SOLINET in May, two major resolutions dealing with the future of scholarly communication were passed. Nancy Marshall, current head of the organization, has given us permission to report them. Both resolutions will be presented to the WHCLIS (White House Conference on Library and Information Services), to which she is an alternate repre- sentative. The first: resolution on support for the development and dissemination of Scholarly Journals in Electronic Format by the Higher Education Community calls for "ownership of scholarly materials by the higher education community" which will "allow more direct involvement with production, pricing and equitable access." Citing the dramatic increase in the cost of producing and distributing scholarly publica- tion, as well as the use of public funds which underwrite the majority of the nation's research and development activities, the WHCLIS is called to support the evolving NREN as a means to "coordinate elec- tronic publishing and to enhance access to the nation's information resources." A second resolution still in drafting will state simply that there should be no copyright on publications resulting from re- search done with government funding. Questions on the resolutions should be directed to Art Young, Bill Potter, Paul Gherman, or Rhoda Channing. The Southastern library directors have said what is on ev- eryone's mind and taken a courageous stance. Life is too short not to state clearly what you want. Getting it may be something else, but at last there is a clear statement. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; Paper mail: Seri- als 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. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may re- ceive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respec- tively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 25 Jun 91 19:25 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NS 4 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES N.S. NUMBER 4 -- June 25, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR: THE A & I QUESTION, Marcia Tuttle : A RESPONSE FROM IOP, Susan George SYMPOSIUM ON RESOURCE SHARING IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, Ann O'Neill FAXON ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF FAXON RESEARCH SERVICES, INC., Press release ARL DIRECTORY TO MEET NEED FOR CATALOG OF ELECTRONIC PUBLI- CATION, Ann Okerson FROM THE MAILBOX HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR: THE A & I QUESTION Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET I have just read recent discussions on HUMANIST concerning the "disad- vantages" of electronic journals. One of these is the lack of indexing and abstracting for the contents of these journals. Printed indexes and indexes of printed materials are apparently most reluctant to expand their scope to electronic journals. As a result, says Paul Gherman in HUMANIST, librarians are calling them "gray literature." In this issue of the newsletter Ann O'Neill and Chuck Hamaker also refer to the problem of indexing electronic publications. What follows is an expanded version of a message to Christian Boissonnas, who had for- warded the HUMANIST messages to me. Why, I wonder naively, cannot one or more of us types who create e- journals create an e-mail A&I service for the electronic journals and make it available on The Internet? It would be a natural for us li- brarian-types. Would anyone be willing to offer this as a free serv- ice? Could one charge for a service delivered over The Internet? This could be a one- or a few-person effort at first. When (not if) the service takes off, someone will offer to buy it (and raise the price). As I understand it, there are e-groups that educate and advise e-edi- tors and moderators. Their archives could contain a promo for the A&I service for the benefit of future publications, telling them how to contact those who are doing the indexing. All e-publications that could be identified could be sent an e-blurb (how's my jargon??) ask- ing them to add the A&I ID (Internet address) to their mailing lists for the benefit of their subscribers. This may not appeal too much to the commercial publishers of e-jour- nals, but they are not the ones we are concerned about here. I'll bet that when they begin to publish e-mail-only journals they will find a way to get them indexed and abstracted, and they will find a way to charge for this access, as well. Our creativity and imaginations have gotten us this far; can indexing be far behind? Why does it all sound so simple? Is it because I'm a librarian? Here's Christian's response to my message: Interesting question you ask. I had never thought about it in this way, and yet I should have. I index ACQNET, mostly for my own use. I send the index to new members so they can see what we've been talk- ing about, but I have no idea what people do with it. They certainly don't ask me for back stuff on the basis of the index very often. I think most of us, including a&i people, have not really made a leap away from traditional journals long enough to have developed the notion that it doesn't have to come down to paper eventually, or that non-paper stuff has the same, or higher, value. I bet you the indexing service people are thinking about it, though. We'll have to ask in Atlanta [at ALA]. But if the "indexing service people" don't solve our problem, someone else will have to -- those of us who need the service. In HUMANIST, Stevan Harnad brings up the question of standardization. He's right, EVENTUALLY we will need standardization. But doesn't this need arise from the lack thereof? If we have nothing, we have no need for standardization in a&i services. We already are dealing with the need for a standard citation for e-pubs; this, when it becomes known and used, should carry over into the a&i's. Let's work on this. Pick my editorial apart! What are your ideas? : A RESPONSE FROM IOP Submitted by Susan C. George, Dartmouth College, Susan.C.George@ mac.dartmouth.edu. Dear Ms. George: Thank you for your e-mail of last Tuesday. WAVES IN RANDOM MEDIA was launched in January and is available on subscription at $215/year. The journal is also being sent free of charge to all subscribers of JOURNAL OF PHYSICS A: MATHEMATICAL AND GENERAL, including those who take JOURNAL OF PHYSICS A as part of a combination subscription. Next year, WAVES IN RANDOM MEDIA will continue to be available on independent subscription. The subscription rate for 1992 will not be decided until July. Because we believe WAVES IN RANDOM MEDIA covers a core area of phys- ics, we ARE seriously considering including it in the combination subscription. We have not yet taken a final decision and will do so at the time we fix subscription rates. Our offer of combination subscriptions at a discount, initially cen- tred around the Journals of Physics is of course of long standing, as is the fact that the contents of the combination have evolved over the years. Individual subscribers of course have always had the choice of staying with the combination or subscribing to individual journals. We, in turn, take careful note of the decisions that purchasers take. Yours sincerely Kurt Paulus Publishing Director Instite of Physics SYMPOSIUM ON RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING Ann O'Neill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science, ONEIA.ILS@mhs.unc.edu. On May 28th and 29th librarians, faculty and administrators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Duke University gathered to participate in a symposium entitled "Cooperative Information Resources Development in the Scien- ces and Engineering." The symposium served as a planning session for a Council on Library Resources grant involving these universities. Guest speakers included Martin Cummings, Director Emeritus of the National Library of Medicine, Richard Lucier of the Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University, and Ann Okerson of the Association of Re- search Libraries. Although the focus of the symposium was upon cooperative resource sharing, issues concerning serials were raised. Richard Lucier and Ann Okerson reflected the concerns of many faculty members that universi- ties are creating the research, giving it away to commercial publish- ers, and then buying it back at very high prices. Many expressed the need for university and society publishers to take more control of scholarly publishing to help reduce libraries' costs for serials. Of related interest was the need to make authors, especially younger faculty members, aware of the copyright law as it affects ownership of information. Often authors are not aware that the copyright agreement signed upon publication gives rights to the information in the article to the publisher, not the author. Discussion then followed on ways to remedy this situation and on which organizations should be involved. Faculty members and librarians raised concerns over access to titles which may be held cooperatively, ways to counter the amount of infor- mation produced to meet promotion and tenure requirements, and how to make editors more aware of practices and policies of the publishers of their journals. There was also discussion of editorial boards, ethics of publishing, and problems with the refereeing system. No symposium would be complete without discussion of electronic jour- nals. While this was not a major concern at this meeting, all partici- pants did view it as an important part of the future of scholarly publishing. Issues of technology, access, indexing, and how this would fit into the present promotion and tenure system were discussed. The participants found this to be a useful symposium. Each group was able to learn from the others and became more aware of the needs and views of each sector. The need for cooperation among all members of the scientific and scholarly publishing community to help find solu- tions to the present serials crisis was enforced at this symposium. FAXON ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF FAXON RESEARCH SERVICES, INC. PRESIDENT APPOINTED TO FAXON RESEARCH SERVICES, INC. Press releases from The Faxon Company, 15 Southwest Park, Westwood MA 02090. May 29, 1991.- The Faxon Company is pleased to announce the formation of Faxon Research Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Faxon Company. Faxon Research Services is charged with providing a current awareness and document delivery service to knowledge-based workers, particularly those working in scientific, technical and medi- cal fields. Over the past century, serial publications have become one of the major vehicles for the dissemination of knowledge. The number of seri- al titles published each year has steadily grown, and until recently, libraries were able to keep the pace with this information explosion. Their subscription budgets increased so they could collect issues in their library "just in case" a patron might want something in those publications at some future date. But the continual expansion in available publications coupled with static or reduced library budgets has fueled the demand for new strategies to meet library patrons' information needs. The capabilities of information retrieval systems, networks, and the increasing computer literacy of library patrons provide the opportunity for libraries to extend their services beyond their local collections. Libraries must find new ways to deliver spe- cific information on a "just in time" basis, independent of local ownership, providing readers with what they want, when they want it. "Faxon Research Services was created to meet the growing need in the marketplace for a convenient, low cost, legal way to obtain individual articles, as a supplement to purchasing such materials in the form of annual subscriptions," explains Richard R. Rowe, Faxon's president and chief executive officer. "Until now, this need was met largely by copying and distributing published materials. While relatively inex- pensive, this method carries hidden labor costs and fails to address legitimate publisher concerns regarding royalties and copyrights." Faxon Research Services plans to address both readers' and publishers' needs in this area. In the fall of 1991, it will launch a set of "just in time" services designed to complement its traditional "just in case" serials subscription vendor services. "We see this move as supportive of traditional serials subscriptions to libraries which publishers and subscription agencies like Faxon provide today," notes Dr. Rowe. "We expect that the new 'just in time' services will stimulate more purchases of journal subscriptions." ------- The Faxon Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas J. Michalak to the post of president of Faxon Research Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Faxon Company. Michalak will join Faxon Research Services in August, 1991. He pres- ently holds the position of associate vice president of Academic Serv- ices and director of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon Universi- ty. He was the 1989 recipient of the American Library Association's Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award for academic library leadership and innovation in library automation. He has held positions at Columbia University, Indiana University (Bloomington) and the University of Illinois (Urbana). "Tom is well known and respected in the library and publishing commun- ity," according to Richard R. Rowe, Faxon's president and chief execu- tive officer. "He has been deeply involved in the development of new information technologies that can deliver customized information to end users on demand. We expect Tom will put that experience to work as president of Faxon Research Services." The Faxon Company is a global information management company special- izing in serial acquisition and information management services. The company's electronic network links over 30,000 publishers to more than 60,000 academic, corporate, government, medical and community librar- ies throughout the world. ARL DIRECTORY TO MEET NEED FOR CATALOG OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION Ann Okerson, Association of Research Libraries, 1527 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington DC 20036, 202 232-2466 (voice), 202 462-7849 (fax), ARLHQ@UMDC.BITNET. (Press release) Responding to the library and academic communities' increasing use of and interest in the burgeoning number of electronic publications, the Association of Research Libraries will publish a hard-copy Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Scholarly Discussion Lists. With the emergence of microcomputers and linked networks as vehicles for scholarly exchange, the problem of how and where to find various academic forums has risen. Although many journals, newsletters, and scholarly lists may be accessed free of charge through BITNET, Inter- net, and affiliated academic networks, it is not always a simple chore to find out what is available. The Directory is a compilation of en- tries for over 500 scholarly lists, about 30 journals, over 60 news- letters, and 15 "other" titles including some newsletter-digests. The directory will give specific instructions for access to each publica- tion. The objective is to assist the user in finding relevant publica- tions and connecting to them quickly, even if not completely versed in the full range of user-access systems. Content editor of the journals/newsletters section is Michael Strange- love, Network Research Facilitator, University of Ottawa. Editor of the scholarly discussion lists/interest groups is Diane Kovacs of the Kent State University Libraries. The printed ARL directory is derived from widely accessible networked files maintained by Strangelove and Kovacs. The directory will point to these as the principal, continu- ously updated, and free-of-charge sources for accessing such materi- als. The publication will be available to ARL member libraries for $10 and to non-members for $20 (add $5 postage per directory for foreign ad- dresses). Orders of 6 or more copies receive a 10% discount. The Di- rectory will be produced in 8 1/2 by 11" paper-bound format; scholarly lists will be grouped by broad subject areas, and journals and news- letters in alphabetical order. All orders must be PREPAID and sent to the Association of Research Libraries. A publication date of July 8 is expected. Updated editions are planned. The Association of Research Libraries is a not-for-profit organization representing 119 research libraries in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to identify and influence forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication. ARL programs and services promote equitable access to, and effective use of recorded knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service. These programs include annual statistical pub- lications, federal relations and information policy, and enhancing access to scholarly information resources through telecommunications, collection development, preservation, and bibliographic control. The following order form is provided for your convenience. Feel free to print it and attach it to your check or money order, payable to ARL. US Dollars only. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PREPAID. Office of Scientific & Academic Publishing Association of Research Libraries 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 USA Name_____________________________________________ Address__________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Number of Copies _________ Amount Enclosed _____________ ______________________________________________________________________ FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. From Heinz Barschall, University of Wisconsin, NUCLEAR@WISCPSL.BITNET: In "From the Mailbox" (NS 3) the reference to the "Report of the APS Task Force on Electronic Information Systems" should be BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 36, p. 1119-51 (1991). Arnold Hirshon (AHIRSHON@WSU.BITNET) passed on a note from Barbara Ford, ACRL President, regarding an item in the last issue about ALA charges for reproducing copyrighted materials: Thanks for forwarding the note to me. We will put the item on the ACRL Board agenda. However, the practice is different than indicated in the message. When ALA's Rights & Permissions Office receives a request from a faculty member, institution, or copy service indicat- ing that the material they are requesting for reproduction in coursepacks or custom anthologies will be provided or sold to the students at cost of reproduction then they ... usually waive the fee which would be charged for commercial reproduction of ALA copyright- ed material and allow one-time use of the material. Also, ALA has been charging $10 per page for reproduction of an unlimited number of copies, not $11 .... Chuck Hamaker (NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET) writes, with regard to Bill Brit- ten's message in the last issue: I am familiar with his study reported in LA:PT. What was interesting about the LSU data was that only 10 percent of circulations were "repeats" over the 3 1/2 years, so the 80/20 rule could not be hold- ing for this collection. In addition, we know from work by Paskoff and Perrault that only about 4 percent of the collection is dupli- cates. Part of the difference may be that we did not count renewals as additional circulations, so have a picture of unique out-of-the- building use which stresses the diversity in the collection. I stand by my interpretation that diversity in book collections is a key to collection use. LSU has been such a good predictor that it may take someone like Mr. Britten to figure out why it is "different" here, but my guess is still that diversity is the key to circulation. Numbers reported at the University of Missouri-St. Louis show an almost 5-fold increase in circulation two years after the acquisi- tions budget was doubled for a single year. All of those extra funds went for monographs, and I believe that the wider the range of books, the more circulation there will be up to a certain size. What that size of collection or student body might be isn't clear, but two million volumes is not too much for 25,000 students -- it's barely enough. Evidence that establishes the primacy of diversity in collections is fairly scarce at the moment. I'm heartened by our findings here and hope to publish a more thorough report in the future. I appreciate Mr. Britten's comment and because my report was brief did not go into details normally expected in a research re- port. There may be other definitional differences as well. We are still working on the study -- it is very much in-progress. From Fred Friend, Librarian, University College, London, ucyl@ucl.ac. uk: RE: ELDRED SMITH, "RESOLVING THE ACQUISITIONS DILEMMA," MAY 1991, P. 231-40. Eldred Smith's article expressed many of my own feelings on the future of scholarly communication. Maybe he is too optimistic about the electronic publication and over-simplifies the solutions to the problems, but he is in tune with many people in wishing to plunge into the world of electronic publication and face the problems. The question posed by Eldred Smith, "Who leads?" is a real one, however. I know about the existing electronic journals but we need to arrange for some major research to be published only in electronic form to start the ball rolling. Once it starts I hope it will be like a snowball gathering momentum and size as it rolls! As librarians we can talk about publishing research electronically, but what can we do to make it happen? Academic staff appear to listen to us sympa- thetically but are we reaching the key people who could make things happen? I would be interested to know if US librarians agree that this is an important consideration. From Ann Okerson, Association of Research Libraries, OKERSON@UMDC. BITNET: The newest issue of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (June 21, 1991), p. 19-26, carries a long, well-researched article by column editor Gayle Feld- man called "Going Dutch." It describes Wolters Kluwer's and Else- vier's positioning in the international PSP (professional and schol- arly publishing) marketplace, strategies, plans, and recent activi- ties. Describing the leaders' behavior as lucrative and discreet, Ms. Feldman contributes a great deal to our picture of international STM and scholarly publications. From Carol Hutchins, Indiana University, Hutchins@ucs.indiana.edu: Please find attached the latest newsletter from Dr. Bob Park, who is Washington lobbyist for the American Physical Society. Of possible interest to your readership is the point about restrictions on pub- lication of CERN (Centre Europeenne de Recherches Nucleaires) work. If CERN authors are restricted to publishing in European journals, all their work goes direct into the hands of Elsevier. Take a look at PHYSICS LETTERS B or NUCLEAR PHYSICS. ....CERN REMOVES RESTRICTION ON PUBLICATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS. While denying it has ever been the policy of CERN to restrict publication to European journals Director General Carlo Rubbia announced that it is not the policy now. CERN scientists have adhered to the non-policy since CERN was established. This removes a long-standing source of friction between CERN and the American Physical Society, which publishes the PHYSICAL REVIEW. HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University, NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. From the Sunday, June 2, 1991 NEW YORK TIMES, Section 3, p. 1, comes a reminder that people other than librarians are vitally concerned about the future of communication in the US. Alfred C. Sikes, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to speed up the adoption of new technology. "He sees a world in which people could use satel- lites and high speed fiber-optic communication lines to take college courses at home, have television sets double as multimedia computer work stations, use communication networks to transmit the contents of an entire library in seconds and track down a person anywhere on the globe to deliver the data." One of his goals is to overhaul communica- tions policy in the US "and put companies on an equal footing with those in Europe and Japan." Any attempts to change the rules governing communications provokes intense opposition, according to the article. "Today's communications laws and industry lobbyists have combined to form the equivalent of their own Army Corps of Engineers. Much like the corps penchant for damming free-flowing streams, today's communi- cations lobbies too often block a stream of ideas and innovations," according to Sikes. He came to the position of FCC chair from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which sets communication policy for the executive branch. "While there, Mr. Sikes produced a massive analysis of trends and policy prescriptions that guides much of his agenda today." With an upcoming vacancy when Sherrie P. Marshall's term expires, ALA and other library organizations need to think about influencing the choice of a new member of the commission. Sikes, although a Republican committed to laissez faire competition, has shown a willingness ac- cording to the Times to use government to pry open new markets for competitors. The library community may have a major champion in advo- cating the free flow of information and the technology and rules to make that happen. It sounds like he is embattled enough to need sup- port and might well welcome support of an organization which can be as effective as ALA. Paul M. Gherman, University Librarian at Virginia Polytechnic Insti- tute and State University, has just done the profession a real service by releasing what will become the foundation documents to the chal- lenge electronic journals present for libraries. "Report of the Task Force on the Electronic Journal" (Paul Metz chairs the task force) develops a basic philosophy because of the solutions that VPI has chosen for problems of access, claiming and storage for e-journals. Any library facing the problem of what to do with these titles should contact Gherman for a copy of the report. The next issue in dealing with this new format is how to index the titles, as it certainly will be a while before commercial indexes even notice them, let alone pick them up for indexing. Some, as those who are on ACQNET know, have self generated occasional file indexes which at some level might be inte- grated into electronic storage media, but it will probably take NISO or some other organization getting it together enough to enter the 21st century before we have reliable indexing for these titles, though surely someone knows a better way. The VPI task force report was re- leased May 17, 1991. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; Paper mail: Seri- als 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. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may re- ceive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respec- tively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 21:00 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NS5 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES N.S. NUMBER 5 -- JULY 15, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle BLDSC AND CARL SYSTEMS, INC., DISCUSS COOPERATIVE DOCUMENT DELIVERY AGREEMENT A FEW THOUGHTS ON CANCELLATIONS FROM A LAW LIBRARY, Pamela Bluh INDEXING OF ELECTRONIC JOURNALS SPRINGER-VERLAG 1992 PRICES, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Daniel SOCIETY AND PUBLISHER EFFORTS EASE BUDGET CRUNCH, Christie Degener FROM THE MAILBOX HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. What difference has the existence and development of scholarly pub- lishing in electronic formats made in your library? I've had a request from Hazel Woodward, Chair of the UK Serials Group, for suggestions for someone from the US <> to lead a workshop on the impact of the electronic journal on the library. The conference is March 30 through April 2, 1992. I recommend the UKSG conference as an opportunity to see other perspec- tives on mutual concerns, make new friends, and exchange experiences and ideas. (See Ken Kirkland's report on the 1991 conference in NS 2 of the newsletter.) In addition, next year's meeting is in Edinburgh, Scotland, the first time this group has met in that country. If you have been to Edinburgh, you know what it's like; if you haven't, what are you waiting for?? If you would like to volunteer to lead the work- shop, please contact me, or Hazel Woodward at H.M.WOODWARD@LUT.AC.UK. --P.S., some of us are planning to resurrect "Tuttle's Tours" and spend an extra week in Scotland after the conference. Let me know if you'd like to know more. BLDSC AND CARL SYSTEMS, INC., DISCUSS COOPERATIVE DOCUMENT DELIVERY AGREEMENT, Press release from CARL Systems, Inc. The British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) and CARL Systems, Inc., of Denver, CO, are pleased to announce their intention of work- ing together to create an effective and comprehensive document deliv- ery service for US libraries. UnCover, CARL Systems' article access and delivery system, will serve as an alerting service to the BLDSC's collection of 55,000 current serial titles. Requests for journal articles cited in UnCover, but not immediately available from UnCover contributing libraries, will be referred to the BLDSC, under terms of the agreement. Discussions are underway between the two organizations and an announcement with fur- ther details of the agreement will be forthcoming. The British Library Document Supply Centre is the most comprehensive document supply service of its kind in the world. More than 3 million requests for documents are received annually, with an overall fulfill- ment rate of 95 percent. Documents can be ordered from anywhere in the world -- by post, telex, fax telephone or a range of online and elec- tronic methods. The BLDSC's unrivalled collections include: 200,000 journal titles (current and noncurrent); 3,000,000 reports; 500,000 theses; 300,000 conference proceedings and 3,000,000 books. UnCover provides access to 1.6 million journal articles, taken from over 10,000 unique titles. Indexing occurs at the point of issue check-in, providing article access current within 24 hours of issue receipt. Optical imaging and telefacsimile technologies are used to deliver the full text of articles found in UnCover to individual re- questors within 24 hours or less. For more information about the BLDSC contact Stella Pilling, British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, LS23 7BQ, West Yorkshire, UK (Voice: +44 937 546023; FAX: +44 937 546333). For more information about UnCover, contact Martha Whittaker, CARL Systems, Inc., 777 Grant St, Denver, CO 80203 (Voice: 303 861-5319; FAX: 303 830-0103). A FEW THOUGHTS ON CANCELLATIONS FROM A LAW LIBRARY Pamela Bluh, University of Maryland Law Library, Baltimore, PBLUH@- UMAB.BITNET. Over the past couple of years we have been struggling with the problem of reducing expenditures while continuing to maintain the collection in a manner which supports the research, teaching and clinical re- quirements of the faculty and students of the school of law. In that regard we are no different than hundreds of other institutions across the country, all trying to do more with less. Fortunately, we had an inkling during fiscal years 1989 and 1990 of the dilemma facing us, and we took steps then to reduce expenditures. Even so, we were not fully prepared by the magnitude of the problem which materialized in fiscal year 1991. Initially, we did what most other libraries have done, we looked at serial titles for which multiple subscriptions were received and made a number of cuts. We also examined our collection of microform hold- ings and made cuts in that area as well, with the understanding that microforms could be obtained retrospectively if the fiscal picture improved. Our next line of attack was to examine legal reporters and here again, a number of cancellations were made when multiple sub- scriptions were held. We felt that these kinds of decisions would be supported because the full text of many legal reporters is available online. All of the work to cancel duplicate subscriptions and microforms seemed like a great effort and gave us the uneasy impression that the collection was being decimated. Nevertheless, we knew that we needed to develop a contingency plan so that if further budget cuts were handed down, we would not have to make hasty and uninformed decisions about cancellations. As a result, we began some informal discussions among the professional staff which led, ultimately, to the design of a methodology for identifying and assessing library materials. We had read a great deal about the vast cancellation projects conduc- ted in some of the nation's largest libraries and began to consider how we could handle a such a task. Our problems are similar to those of larger institutions (it is just a question of scale) and we felt that the solutions would probably be similar as well. As we talked about how we might approach the matter here, a number of ideas began to crystalize. First of all we had to decide where the focus should be placed next. Journals had already been cancelled and there was not much left which was not central to the mission and objectives of the institution, so some other area would have to become the target for savings. In law libraries, a great deal of money is spent on looseleaf services and we were naturally reluctant to start whittling away at these types of materials, since the investment is so significant. Once allowed to lapse, the service cannot be replaced without an expenditure of twice or even three times the annual upkeep costs. Nevertheless, since these materials represented very heavy continuing expenditures, we finally realized that they could no longer be exempt from review. Second, we knew that any decisions to cancel looseleaf and legal con- tinuations could only be done with the advice and consent of the fac- ulty. Fortunately, the library maintains an excellent working rela- tionship with the faculty and so cooperation from the faculty was anticipated. Third, based on experiences with other cancellation projects here, as well as what we had heard and read, we doubted that a system of review which relied solely on numerical rankings, such as 1 being most impor- tant and 5 being least important, would result in any substantial sav- ings, since it was highly likely that respondents would find all ti- tles extremely important. In order to determine relevancy, we decided instead to take a completely different approach to assessing the ma- terial, based on use of the material. "Use" for the purposes of this project was not tied to statistical information about number of circu- lations a title might have had over a given period, which might have been obtained from the online system, but rather use based on a facul- ty member's personal knowledge of a particular title in a specific subject area. We were fairly certain that there were a number of very valuable, important titles in our collection which, if not being used, (or for which no program currently existed or was planned) or not known, should perhaps be considered for cancellation. We felt we could no longer afford the luxury of maintaining a collection of "important" titles which were never used. Therefore, we created five broad cate- gories and asked each respondent to indicate for each title being considered, the type of use (or uses) being made of the material. The categories we designed were: Course, Seminar, Clinic, Research, and Unfamiliar with title. The intent was to have faculty indicate whether a specific title is used for course work, either for their preparation for the course or by the students themselves; in a seminar; as part of the clinical law program; or for individual research projects. The fifth category was added to handle instances where the title was not known to the respondent and presumably therefore not used in teaching, clinical work or research. As a result of a fairly comprehensive analysis of the collection, approximately 50 subject areas were identified, ranging from Account- ing to Zoning. Much of the work of selecting titles for the lists was done by actual physical examination of the material in the stacks. The primary target of the review was on titles having periodic upkeep, such as material in looseleaf form or having annual supplementation in the form of pocket parts or supplements. In the field of law it is not uncommon for subjects to be covered in very similar ways by a number of different publishers. For example, both Prentice Hall and Commerce Clearing House publish a guide to tax information for the states. Frequently all that is different about the publications is the presentation; the coverage itself is identical. So titles dealing with the same topic from different vendors received top priority for consideration. Once the subject lists were assembled, the staff began the work of identifying individual faculty members in each subject area to whom the lists of titles could be sent for review. Some faculty received only one list while others received several lists. In some subject areas, the same list was sent to a number of key faculty. Each faculty member was asked to review the information and annotate the form which accompanied the list of titles. For the most part faculty were quick to respond to the request for information and returned the completed forms within the time allotted. The library received support from the law school administration which was critical to the success of the project. Because of the publication pattern of much of this type of material, it was essential that the cancellation decisions be made as early as possible so that savings could be realized as soon as possible. Our goal, therefore, was to have the completed forms back in time to make final decisions before the new fiscal year began on July 1, 1991. With the completed forms in hand, several members of the library staff, including the research librarian and the librarian responsible for collection development, as well as the director of the library, evaluated the responses. In addition to the information provided by the faculty, the library staff also kept in mind such things as sup- port for new courses in the planning stages, new faculty with special needs coming to the school, and our obligations to resource sharing within the academic law library community, as well as within the greater university community. The plan was that, once library staff had reviewed the individual responses, a complete list of titles pegged for cancellation would be sent to all faculty for final com- ments and review. In this way, everyone would have an opportunity to see what decisions were being recommended, rather than restricting the decision-making process to those faculty with an interest in a specif- ic subject area. There are many aspects of the law which are very much interdependent and we felt that an examination of the entire spectrum of recommended cancellations by all faculty would give us that extra measure of support for the process. With only a few exceptions, the complete list of cancellations received widespread faculty support. Our serials/continuations budget for FY92 is $395,001 (exactly the same as it was for FY91 after cuts were made). The cost of upkeep for the titles targeted for review was approximately $166,000. As a result of the review process, approximately $76,600 worth of titles, based on FY91 prices, was identified for cancellation. With the rate of infla- tion for legal continuations estimated to be in the vicinity of 6 percent, and given the fact that our FY92 budget represents the 'stat- us quo' and is susceptible at any moment to further reductions, the cuts we have made, representing 19 percent of the allocation for con- tinuations, will allow us a very small modicum of flexibility in our monographic purchases for the year, and we hope just barely keep us from running a deficit for serials and continuations. In addition to the cancellations which have been recommended as a result of this process, we have also been able to identify a secondary list of titles for cancellation if the need arises. While we earnestly hope this will not happen, if further cuts are required, we will not be faced with making rash, spur of the moment decisions. Let's face it, this is a transitory world we live in, and despite our best ef- forts at planning and forecasting, circumstances change rapidly. We hope we are on top of things, but only time will tell! The process described here worked well for us for a number of reasons. We are a relatively small library (as academic libraries go), with a discrete collection. We have a very supportive faculty and administra- tion who appreciate the library and the services it offers and who are willing to work closely with us in making sure we are able to continue to meet our objectives. We are trying to take a proactive rather than a reactive stance to events and value advance planning both for the benefits for the organization and for the well-being of the staff. INDEXING OF ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Responses to editorial in NS 4. From Norman Stevens, University of Connecticut (HBLADMXX@UCONNVM): In response to your comment about indexing/abstracting I agree that it is something to be looked at. It should be noted, though, that with journals in electronic form it certainly should be possible, and highly desirable, to develop an approach that would allow for "free-form" text searching based on words and/or strings rather than conventional indexing techniques that are far less detailed. I believe that one of my staff currently is using a software package that allows her to do that kind of searching on various list server files. From Tom McFadden, University of California, Davis, TGMCFADDEN@- UCDAVIS.EDU): As a librarian AND indexer (and member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Indexers), I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I had not thought much about this problem. Probably because most electronic publishing to date has not really passed the So What test -- i.e., it simply hasn't been of sufficient scholarly importance to merit the effort of trying to identify and control it. But this situation is beginning to change. There appear to be at least two general problems here: 1. Bibliographic control of electronic publications, of the sort offered by library catalogs and other, similar, lists; 2. Indexing (and possibly abstracting) of electronic publi- cations, of the sort offered by services such as H.W. Wilson or the MLA. The first problem, along with the problem of electronic journal archiving, is probably prior. Until we can establish bibliograph- ic control and solve related problems of access and location, it won't help much to provide indexing. After that, however, may we not assume that (eventually, an important qualification) elec- tronic journals will be included in the traditional indexing services (such as Wilson)? Would this be so bad? And in fact, wouldn't this development assist in (partly) legitimizing elec- tronic journals - something this format desperately needs to compete with traditional print publishing? If something like this does NOT happen, then do we envision a parallel body of indexing literature growing up exclusively for electronic formats? I don't have any quick answers here, but it clearly is the case that someone needs to begin thinking seriously about this question quite soon. From Jim Mouw, University of Chicago (MOUW@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU): The issue of indexing for electronic journals raises several interesting questions in my mind. It seems to me that the actual indexing might be the easiest part. We already have good indexing mechanisms in place, both in print and non-print versions. We seem to understand the benefits and problems inherent in the various types of indexing -- controlled vocabulary, key-word, full-text, etc. -- and we should be able to apply these to elec- tronic journals. I believe that the major problem is that we don't yet know how to control the journals themselves. The following pieces of the puzzle are not yet fully in place: 1. Bibliographic control - these journals are now being cata- loged and entered into the national database, but I have no indi- cation that many libraries are taking advantage of the records. I do believe that this will change with time. 2. Patron access - this is partially an offshoot of the biblio- graphic control issue. The question is: How will the desired information, once identified through an index, be delivered to the patron. 3. Availability of information - these journals are not the same as the paper products that we receive, catalog, bind, and shelve. Some of the journals are archived, others are not (particularly in the area of newsletters). We must ensure that the desired information will be available both now and 25 years down the road. Who will be responsible for keeping the "official archives" of these publications. This is especially critical since we know that this electronic information is prone to alteration, either accidental or deliberate. SPRINGER-VERLAG 1992 PRICES Dr. Hans-Ulrich Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Springer-Verlag New York. Letter dated June 24, 1991. Dear Librarian: Being very aware of the serious budgetary constraints that academic, corporate and medical libraries are facing, I am particularly pleased to announce that 1992 price increases for Springer journals produced here in the United States average only 4 percent. Most of this in- crease can be attributed to just two journals which will see an in- crease in pagination and reguarity. That means that many of the other New York titles did not increase in price at all! Good news for you also on imported journals: The dollar is strong now and may be getting even stronger against the German Mark. This bodes well for the more than 300 Springer-Verlag journals that come to us from Germany. While we do not have our final figures before August for these titles we are expecting an overall 1992 price increase of just 3 to 4 percent, and some journals may even decrease in price. In our continuing effort to be responsive to the library community, we hope this very minimal price increase for 1992 will be helpful to you in these difficult budgetary times. All of us involved in the Spring- er-Verlag journal program have made every effort to contain costs without sacrificing quality in these difficult times, and we have succeeded. With best regards PS: The 1992 journal price list will be available in August 1991. [A phone call from Jerry Curtis of Springer-Verlag New York on July 11 announced that Springer has set its exchange rate at 1.79 Marks. Jerry says that some of the higher priced Springer journals may have price decreases of as much as $100.00 for American libraries in 1992.-ED.] SOCIETY AND PUBLISHER EFFORTS EASE BUDGET CRUNCH Christie T. Degener, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CDEGENER@MED.UNC.EDU. Kudos to the cooperative efforts of a professional society and a pub- lisher for helping relieve overextended serials budgets. The Physi- cians for Social Responsibility asked Williams & Wilkins how PSR might make their new scholarly journal, PSR QUARTERLY (ISSN: 1051-2438), available to hospital and health center libraries. Williams & Wilkins agreed to let PSR chapters pay institutional subscription costs for a copy specifically designated for a library location. The publisher will mail a card notifying the recipient about the gift, and the is- sues themselves will be mailed directly to the library. As an added incentive, Williams & Wilkins is offering the initial subscription at a 20 percent discount ($68.00 rather than $85.00); this discount will not be available for renewals. Our library has already been contacted by our local PSR chapter and we are excited about receiving this title. Bound volumes of the journal will include bookplates acknowledging the source of the gift. We sin- cerely hope that others follow this example. FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. Pat Berger of the National Institute of Standards and Technology sends an item entitled "Bereft of Books" from the May 18 issue of NEW SCIEN- TIST (p. 17), reporting on the results of a study conducted by the British Library in which "more than 2000 researchers at universities and polytechnics" were interviewed: British researchers say that they are less adventurous, less rigorous and less well-informed than they were five years ago because library collections of scientific journals have deterio- rated....Research now takes longer because journals are scarcer. [The study] reveals a widespread belief that libraries abroad are better stocked and give foreign researchers an edge over their British counterparts. The study's author, Bob Erens, "says that government funding has not kept pace with increases in the prices of books and journals." The name of the study is RESEARCH LIBRARIES IN TRANSITION. From Brad Grissom, Biological Sciences Library, University of Kentucky (BGRISSOM@UKCC.UKY.EDU): The 7/1 issue of BARRON's, in its mid-year market roundtable, has this nice quote from stockpicker Ron Baron on John Wiley & Sons: ...It's their scientific journal business which is terrific. Q: Why? A: The people who write for the journals don't get paid. The people who subscribe must take them, because they are working in those research disciplines. So, they get 95 percent renewals, with no authorship costs, and they collect the subscription money in advance. The business grows every year by 15 percent or 20 percent and, as the scientific knowledge in the disciplines they cover grows, the frequency of publication increases. These busi- nesses are very difficult to enter. The journal business alone is worth over $60 per Wiley share. Q: What is the stock worth? A: It's worth considerably more than $100 a share, and is selling at $37. From Lois Pausch, Acting Geology Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (PAUSCH@UIUCVMD.BITNET): Just before I left for ALA (around June 26), this Library re- ceived a letter from our major domestic serial vendor asking whether or not we would keep our standing order for the Associa- tion of Engineering Geologists publications since the price was going from $80 in 1990/91 to $351 in 1991/92. After conferring with pertinent faculty members, one decided to call the Associa- tion to try to find out what was behind the very large increase in price. He reported to me that he was told that the Association had decided to raise the price on its directory to $300 because the directory was being used as a source of names, addresses, etc. by various entities but that it was possible to subscribe to the BULLETIN and the NEWSLETTER without getting the directory. I passed this information on to our Acquisitions Department, who confirmed it with our vendor. We have decided that we can live without the directory and will continue to receive the other two publications (current price, $80). From Judy Rieke, Medical Center Library, Vanderbilt University (RIEKEJL@VUCTRVAX.BITNET): I want to tell you about an instance where our vendor "went to bat" for us. Springer-Verlag recently shipped and invoiced for a "supplement" to NEURORADIOLOGY (ISSN: 0028-3940) without obtain- ing the permission of the end receiver in advance. Mr. William Leazer of Majors Scientific Subscriptions received so many com- plaints about this that he wrote Dr. Hans-Ulrich Daniel, Presi- dent of Springer-Verlag New York, about the practice. He explained that each library has its own set of rules for pur- chasing, regardless of how related the supplement was to the journal, and that libraries must be given the option of accepting or rejecting such a publication that they did not expect, may not want, and certainly did not budget for! The reply he received from Dr. Daniel indicated his agreement that the distribution should have been done in a different way, and that they would do so in the future. He also promised to be more sensitive to the needs of librarians and vendors when it comes to similar supplement publications. Let's hope so! HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University, NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. The CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION for June 26, 1991 has a number of items to check. First, just in case the budget cuts at your institu- tion are getting you down, try this situation on for size: The severe overcrowding of Australian universities is so severe that "at the graduate level students face increasing restrictions in the use of research libraries....At the University of Melbourne, graduate stu- dents have had to stand in line in the library for up to three hours before receiving assistance!" (p. A27 "Dispatch Case") Ann Okerson responds to the May 22nd articles on efforts to cut "trivial" scholar- ship and the "Million refereed articles." Her conclusion may surprise some, so I urge you to read her letter. Ted Weiss, New York House Democrat has the last say in "Point of View" with an article headed "Too Many Scientists Who Blow the Whistle End Up Losing Their Jobs and Careers" and indicates major changes coming in reviews of fraudulent research. The July 3 issue has a major article detailing the results of work on 14 allegations of fraud and plagiarism. That article is also a good summary. The July 12 issue of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY has a report on the June 18th Trends seminar sponsored by PW and the Book Industry Study Group. Donald Lamm (chairman of Norton) gave the keynote address, and one of his comments was astounding: "Publishers are force feeding their wares onto a reluctant public." If that wasn't revolutionary enough, Karen Hunter, V-P for Elsevier, put out the word: "our market simply doesn't have the money." The financial problems with the STM market "were not cyclical, but represent a profound change. Business as usual is over have said it better myself. See pages 16-18. Also of note, quoted in the same issue of PW p. 20 but originally from the NEW YORK TIMES June 30 Business section is this from Dick Snyder, CEO of Simon & Schuster: "We are not a publisher; we are now a creator of copyrights for their exploitation in any medium or distribution system." got that--right?? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; Paper mail: Seri- als 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. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may re- ceive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respec- tively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 03 Sep 91 19:20 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NS 7 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NS NUMBER 7 - September 3, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle ARL E-PUB DIRECTORY AVAILABLE, Association of Research Libraries SPRINGER-VERLAG 1992 JOURNAL PRICES, Maggie Rioux SUBSCRIPTIONS VS DOCUMENT DELIVERY, Fred Friend MECKLER PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENTS, Mary Ellen Cisero THOUGHTS ON ELECTRONIC INDEXING, Norman Stevens NASIG CALL FOR PAPERS, Lisa Peterson FEATHER RIVER INSTITUTE CALL FOR PAPERS, Tom Leonhardt WHY IT'S FREE IF YOU QUALIFY, Peter Graham GHERMAN ARTICLE IN , David Perry and Susan Lewis PUBLIC-ACCESS COMPUTER SYSTEMS REVIEW: SPECIAL ISSUE ON NETWORK-BASED SERIALS, Charles Bailey FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. Housekeeping: With the last issue we had what seems to be our quarter- ly distribution fiasco. Our computer center was upgrading its soft- ware, and things did not go smoothly. At the same time I happened to send out an issue of the newsletter. Matter of fact, I sent it out twice. I know that some subscribers got more than one copy and some (including me) got none. I also sent a message asking anyone who did not get a copy of NS 6 to let me know. That message may not have gone out. At any rate, I apologize for multiple (or no) copies of the last issue. I have been assured once again that our problems here are re- solved. If you did not get a copy of NS 6, please let me know, and I'll send you one. In May at the Society for Scholarly Publishing conference I met Susan Lewis from the Pennsylvania State University Press. She subscribes to this newsletter and forwards each issue to university press colleagues on a network called AAUPTALK. The item by Martha Kellar in the last issue resulted from her seeing the newsletter on AAUPTALK. Occasional- ly I am copied for an exchange of messages on that network, and Sue Lewis assures me that it is all right to use those in the newsletter. The exchange between Sue and David Perry appears in this issue. I appreciate Sue's expanding both our readership and our editorial con- tent in this way. ARL E-PUB DIRECTORY AVAILABLE Association of Research Libraries press release, August 5, 1991. Association of Research Libraries 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 For Further Information Contact: Ann Okerson ARLHQ@UMDC.Bitnet (202) 232-2466 (voice) (202) 462-7849 (fax) ARL Directory Meets Need for Catalog of Electronic Publications Responding to the library and academic communities' increasing use of and interest in the burgeoning number of electronic publications, the Association of Research Libraries has published: DIRECTORY OF ELECTRONIC JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS, AND ACADEMIC DISCUSSION LISTS, Compiled by Michael Strangelove and Diane Kovacs; Edited by Ann Okerson. Washington DC. First Edition, July 1991. ISSN: 1057-1337. CHOICE OF FORMATS: Print-on-paper, 180 pages, 8.5 x 11 inch size; 3.5" diskette, DOS WordPerfect; 3.5" diskette, Microsoft Word (Macintosh); Hypertext version in preparation by Peter Scott, University of Sas- katchewan. The ARL directory is derived from widely accessible networked files maintained by Strangelove and Kovacs. The directory will point to these as the principal, continuously updated, and free-of-charge sour- ces for accessing such materials. PRICING: All orders must be PREPAID $10.00 to ARL members $20.00 to non-ARL members $25.00 US, non-U.S. price, surface mail $30.00 US, non-U.S. price, air mail Quantity: non-members receive a 10 percent discount for orders of more than 5 copies. NOTE: The ARL has only 119 institutional member libraries that qualify for the $10 subsidized price. Unfortunately, we have had to return a great number of orders sent from others -- this delays fulfillment. We thank you for assuring in advance that the amount you send is correct. The Association of Research Libraries is a not-for-profit organization representing 119 research libraries in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to identify and influence forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication. ARL programs and services promote equitable access to, and effective use of recorded knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service. These programs include annual statistical pub- lications, federal relations and information policy, and enhancing access to scholarly information resources through telecommunications, collection development, preservation, and bibliographic control. The following order form is provided for your convenience. Feel free to print it and attach it to your check or money order, payable to ARL. US Dollars only. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PREPAID. Office of Scientific & Academic Publishing Association of Research Libraries 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 USA Name____________________________________________ Address___________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Number of Copies _________ Amount Enclosed _____________ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDER AND INTEREST IN ARL's PUBLICATIONS SPRINGER-VERLAG 1992 JOURNAL PRICES Maggie Rioux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MRIOUX@WHOI.EDU. We had a visit yesterday (August 7) from John Long from Springer-Ver- lag, and he brought at least a little bit of good news about 1992 prices for European journals. Some of the prices will actually be going down! I am reproducing below the note he brought (referring to Springer titles): U.S. published journals will increase approximately 4 percent. The DM exchange rate has been set at 1.79 DM per dollar in con- trast to DM rate of 1991, 1.56. The 1992 rate makes the dollar approximately 15 percent stronger, and as a result almost all European published, Springer-Verlag journals will cost US and Canadian librarians less in 1992 than in 1991. Please see a sample listing of journals (attached) comparing 1991 price to 1992 price. '91 '92 Applied Physics A & B $1700 $1585 Archives of Microbiology 1645 1524 Archives of Virology 1173 1104 Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy 876 825 Colloid & Polymer Science 821 760 Diabetologia 383 429 European Journal of Biochemistry 1939 1748 European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 813 769 Histochemistry 1444 1360 Journal of Mathematical Biology 563 532 Journal of Neurology 625 560 Marine Biology 1969 1858 Mathematische Annalen 1772 1664 Mineralium Deposita 253 249 Oecologia 2188 2013 Physics & Chemistry of Minerals 798 699 Radiation & Environmental Biophysics 361 349 Theoretica Chimica Acta 863 881 Zeitschrift fur Physik A 1122 1047 Zeitschrift fur Physik C 1981 1888 Zeitschrift fur Physik D 1301 952 Zentralblatt fur Mathematik 4587 4317 Zoomorphology 502 461 Also - we were told by Faxon that their prediction for our title mix for 1992 was 9.5 percent increase on U.S. titles, 3.5 percent on for- eign titles. This would give us an overall increase for our list of only 5 percent. It's not much, but this is the first **good** news I've heard in a long time. SUBSCRIPTIONS VS DOCUMENT DELIVERY Fred Friend, University College London, UCYL@UCL.AC.UK. We are all finding that the Newsletter performs a valuable function in exposing publishers' unwelcome practices -- as happened with Eleanor Cook's good work on VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY -- but I am also begin- ning to appreciate the Newsletter's role in enabling us to discuss more general serials issues which emerge from the crisis over prices. One such issue which I have been thinking through, and which has ap- peared in a number of recent contributions, is the question of how we deal with the serials budget as part of the overall library budget. Like many libraries UCL has had since time immemorial a budget head called "periodicals," around 25 percent of our total expenditure, not broken down at all and not related to the other budget heads. One good thing which has come out of the crisis over prices is that we have come to look at that large sum of money more closely, both to see what it is composed of and to see how it relates to our other services. For breaking down the expenditure we are adopting the approach of identi- fying the academic departments which use particular titles and notion- ally charging those departments for those titles. You can imagine that this is not straightforward, with use by several departments of one title. We have not completed the exercise as yet, so do not ask me yet how it is working, but it does seem to be the best way of keeping journal costs under regular review. Another line I would like to pursue is to relate journal costs to document delivery costs, to say to an academic department that with the budget we have allocated to you you can either have a particular journal subscription or a certain number of journal articles delivered to your desk. Thinking of the periodicals budget in that way repre- sents a major change for library staff and for academic staff but it may prove to be a good way forward which has come out of the current crisis over prices. MECKLER PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENTS Mary Ellen Cisero, Meckler Publishing, MECKLER@TIGGER.JVNC.NET. Meckler Publishing, a leading technology information publisher, has established an electronic publishing division. In September, an elec- tronic journal named MECTECH WEEK will be published and include an editorial, late breaking news, and featured articles from Meckler print publications. January 14-16, 1992, Meckler will sponsor the First Annual Electronic Networking and Publishing Conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. An exhibit hall will offer a showcase of electronic com- munications and publishing systems and services. THOUGHTS ON ELECTRONIC INDEXING Norman Stevens, University of Connecticut, HBLADM3@UCONNVM.BITNET. While Ann Okerson has a valid point in respect to the respectability to be gained from having electronic journals indexed in standard in- dexing and abstracting services, I continue to feel that those editors are missing the boat. Standard indexing services, whether in print or electronic form, have serious flaws and it is foolish to accept those flaws. It would be far better for the electronic journals to set a new standard for indexing that would vastly improve access and might even encourage other journals, including those that have been published in print form, to join the electronic ranks. Let me give a simple example based on my own research. I have a seri- ous interest in the celebration known as Old Home Week, or Old Home Day, that began in NH in 1899 and had a strong existence for almost 25 years before starting to fade away. Remnants of it still exist and, for reasons I haven't yet been able to discover, the phrase "It's just like old home week" has gained acceptance for referring to a situation in which you unexpectedly meet a group of familiar faces in an unusual place. In pursuing my research I am collecting, among other things, all references to Old Home Week or Old Home Day that I can find. Standard indexing sources and standard library catalogs are of very little help but I have discovered that CD-ROM products and OPACs with Boolean searching are a fruitful source of information. My guess is that there are probably already such references in electronic journals and standard indexing will surely never pick them up. Free form text searching, which would require little or no human indexing skills, would be just what I need. It is a shame when those who are creating new information sources feel so constrained by tradition. There are several reasons why authors, especially faculty members, like to have their journal articles refereed and indexed. Those in- clude, of course, their quest for promotion and tenure; but, even in those crass terms, they are also interested in the extent to which their articles get cited in other works. Presumably they even have some interest in simply making their work known for altruistic rea- sons. Listing in a standard indexing service is still the safe way to go but, in fact, free text electronic indexing would be likely to increase the probability that others would seek out, use, and -- yes - - even cite their work. Plus one might assume that over time, and it may be some time, knowing how slow institutions and faculty are to change, there might even be some prestige in being able to demonstrate that your work has been indexed in the first electronic indexing serv- ice. In the present stage of our fascination with technology the fac- ulty member's department head, dean, provost, and/or president is a) unlikely to wander over to the library and look at a printed index to see what his/her faculty has been up to and, even if he/she does so, b) be incredibly bored and unimpressed. But that same person is likely to be fascinated and duly impressed by finding that same information in an electronic system that he/she might even be able to access from the office. NASIG CALL FOR PAPERS Lisa Peterson, University of California, Riverside, PETERSON@UCRVMS. BITNET. NORTH AMERICAN SERIALS INTEREST GROUP, INC. CALL FOR PAPERS CALL FOR WORKSHOPS CALL FOR DISCUSSION GROUP LEADERS The North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG), an organization committed to serving the interests of all members of the serials in- formation chain, will hold its seventh annual conference from June 18- 21, 1992 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. NASIG's annual conference provides a forum in which serials librarians, publishers, vendors, educators, binders, systems developers, and other specialists exchange views, present new ideas and discuss matters of current in- terest. The proceedings are published and distributed to a wide audi- ence. This is a call for PAPERS treating any aspect of serials activities such as administration, acquisitions, cataloging, automation, binding, union listing, budgeting, publishing, and future developments. Topics addressing interrelationships between the various NASIG constituencies are of special interest, as are presentations on new developments and new paradigms for the dissemination and control of the serial litera- ture. The 1992 conference will include a one-day joint session with the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). This represents a unique op- portunity for papers on the specific topics of: the National Research and Education Network (NREN); Marketing to Libraries; University Over- heads and their Relationship to Libraries; Custom Publishing and Pub- lishing on Demand; Document and Article Delivery Services -- Implica- tions for Libraries, Vendors and Publishers. This is also the call for abstracts from individuals interested in leading a WORKSHOP at the conference. Workshops are sessions designed to develop ideas and techniques for managing any aspect of serials work. Related to workshops, NASIG is also calling for DISCUSSION GROUP topics and leaders to stimulate lively exchanges, particularly about links between librarians, publishers and vendors. Submission from all members of NASIG and the serials community are welcome. Topic and speaker suggestions from the information community at large are also welcome. Titles and abstracts, to a maximum of 100 words, must be submitted by OCTOBER 1, 1991 to: Lisa Peterson, NASIG Secretary Univ. of California/LIBRARY P.O. Box 5900 Riverside, CA 92517-5900 Phone: 714-787-4381 FAX: 714-787-3285 BITNET: peterson@UCRVMS FEATHER RIVER INSTITUTE CALL FOR PAPERS Thomas Leonhardt, University of the Pacific, TLEONHARDT@MADVAX.UOP. EDU. THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC LIBRARY THIRD ANNUAL FEATHER RIVER INSTITUTE MAY 28 - MAY 31, 1992 THE EVOLUTION OF LIBRARY MATERIALS BUYING STRATEGIES AND ACQUISITIONS TENETS: FROM GATHERING PLANS TO PHILOSOPHICAL MODELS For the third annual Feather River Institute we are asking for papers that deal with some aspect of what acquisitions librarians do, or, for our historical perspective, what we have done. The topic is worded to allow the greatest possibility in answering this call while still offering the audience a coherent program. The size of the previous two Feather River Institutes has averaged 45 people, speakers included. For those who have not attended, the group is limited in size by choice. We could expand to 60 and prefer not to go below 40 for financial reasons. The small audience means that the speaker is virtually a part of the audience even while speaking and most certainly afterwards when it is time for questions and discus- sion. This is one professional gathering that guarantees good discus- sion and a chance to get to the related issues that concern you. Potential speakers are asked to submit, by October 15, 1991, an ab- stract or detailed outline of your paper (no more than two pages, please) to : Thomas W. Leonhardt Dean of Libraries University of the Pacific Stockton, CA 95211. (209)946-2434 You may also submit your abstracts via Internet to : TLEONHARDT@ MADVAX.UOP.EDU A subcommittee of four has agreed to help choose the program for 1992. Accepted papers will be published in LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS: PRACTICE AND THEORY and are expected to meet the style requirements for that journal. An informal delivery of the paper is encouraged. ABOUT FEATHER RIVER The conference is held in the Feather River Inn, originally an inn, then a prep school, and, under the ownership of the University of the Pacific, an inn again. The Feather River Inn is located in Blairsden, California on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada about an hour from Reno, Nevada. There is ample free time in the late afternoons and evenings for hik- ing, golf, and other activities. The free time and chance to meet with colleagues in a beautiful and intimate atmosphere makes this a special conference. The meals are home-cooked and taken together in a large dining hall. The talks are given in one large room with a roaring fireplace to keep the spring chill off. The Inn is about 4,500 feet above sea level so even on warm days, warm clothing is necessary. If you have any questions about FRI III, please call Tom Leonhardt at (209)946-2434 or write via USPS or the Internet. References furnished on request. WHY IT'S FREE, IF YOU QUALIFY Peter Graham, Rutgers University, GRAHAM@ZODIAC.BITNET. My daughter got YM for a while so I am now an authority: I believe it earlier stood for Young Miss, but anyone who has observed 14/16-year- old girls know that such a title won't wash any more. Young and Modern may well be what they're after now. In computing and data management there are many journals which are free to specified audiences but which may also be subscribed to. These range from fairly low-grade, always free newsletters with a very high proportion of advertising, through industry-coverage newsletters such as PC WEEK, MACWEEK and INFO WORLD, up to DATAMATION. The latter is typically subscribed to but is occasionally offered to high-level management for free (as is, I have found, MACWORLD magazine, another monthly). The intermediate range, such as PC WEEK and INFO WORLD, are very use- ful for keeping up with trends but have a half-life of about 3 months due to the technical obsolescence rapidity of the field. They can be valuable to subscribe to for a library as they have real and current information. The driving force behind these of course is the advertisers' wish to reach an audience, in this case an audience which might be deterred from subscribing but is in fact seen as a wealthy audience, i.e. one controlling very considerable purchasing power. Thus a "subscriber" gets a free offer form (often bound in each copy each week), and must re-fill out the form at regular intervals to satisfy an industry au- diting bureau that you exist, have a certain purchasing status, and still want the publication. I have never seen any check on what one fills out on these forms. I suspect publications like YM are in the same category: the advertis- ers want their ads seen, and dentists' offices and beauty shops are their water-holes. Why they don't see libraries the same way is a matter for speculation: perhaps in fact kids in their market don't go in libraries or don't get their YM fix there; perhaps they see librar- ies as having money that dentists don't (I know, I know; don't argue with *me*). Someone should ask. GHERMAN ARTICLE IN C. David Perry, UNC Press, carlos@ecsvax,BITNET, and Susan Lewis, Pennsylvania State University Press, SXL116@PSUVM.PSU.EDU. [From AAUPTALK.-ed.] PERRY: The 14 August issue of the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION has an excellent piece by Paul Gherman, of VPI library, ("Setting Budgets for Libraries in Electronic Era," p. A36) on future acquisition strategies of university libraries. Worthwhile reading for all connected with scholarly publishing. The piece is adapted from a talk Gherman gave at the Naples AAUP meeting. LEWIS: Gherman's article on electronic publishing was excellent and perhaps a call to action as well. He lays out the situation with par- ticularly stunning clarity when he says that "the publisher who gives us the easiest, most attractive, and flexible access to full texts will win the marketplace, regardless of whether others are selling the same information in a different format." In the process of investigating e-journals, which I think will evolve much more quickly than e-monographs, I've discovered that the biggest problem publishers face is distribution. Most currently rely on sub- scription services like Faxon and EBSCO to deliver print journals. Will we use similar services for e-journals? Even if the journal ceas- es to exist as the basic unit of academic information, who will be responsible for ensuring that copyright fees are paid for access to individual articles? Some services (CARL systems immediately comes to mind) currently offer full-text electronic delivery on demand after obtaining permissions from individual publishers for electronic distribution. Can publishers count on these companies to develop an electronic subscription serv- ice? Or should we as publishers pool our resources and work with li- brarians to set up our own distribution network? Seems to me that the publishers who don't deal with these problems will not be the ones to "win the marketplace." PUBLIC-ACCESS COMPUTER SYSTEMS REVIEW: SPECIAL ISSUE ON NETWORK-BASED ELECTRONIC SERIALS Charles Bailey, University of Houston, LIB3@UHUPVM1.BITNET. PUBLIC-ACCESS COMPUTER SYSTEMS REVIEW Volume 2, Number 1 (1991) ISSN 1048-6542 Editor-In-Chief: Charles W. Bailey, Jr. University of Houston Associate Editors: Columns: Leslie Pearse, OCLC Communications: Dana Rooks, University of Houston Reviews: Mike Ridley, University of Waterloo Editorial Board: Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group Nancy Evans, Library and Information Technology Association David R. McDonald, Tufts University R. Bruce Miller, University of California, San Diego Paul Evan Peters, Coalition for Networked Informa- tion Peter Stone, University of Sussex Published on an irregular basis by the University Libraries, Universi- ty of Houston. Technical support is provided by the Information Tech- nology Division, University of Houston. Circulation: 2,685 subscribers in 32 countries. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Editor's Address: Charles W. Bailey, Jr. University Libraries University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-2091 (713) 749-4241 LIB3@UHUPVM1.BITNET Articles are stored as files at LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. To retrieve a file, send the GET command given after the article information to LISTSERV@ UHUPVM1. To retrieve the article as an e-mail message instead of a file, add "F=MAIL" to the end of the GET command. Back issues are also stored at LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. To obtain a list of all available files, send the following message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1: INDEX PACS-L. The name of each issue's table of contents file begins with the word "CONTENTS." Note that all of the above e-mail addresses are on BITNET. The list server also has an Internet address: LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU. CONTENTS SPECIAL SECTION ON NETWORK-BASED ELECTRONIC SERIALS The Electronic Journal: What, Whence, and When? Ann Okerson (pp. 5-24) To retrieve this file: GET OKERSON PRV2N1 Online Journals: Disciplinary Designs for Electronic Scholarship Teresa M. Harrison, Timothy Stephen, and James Winter (pp. 25-38) To retrieve this file: GET HARRISON PRV2N1 Post-Gutenburg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in the Means of Production of Knowledge Stevan Harnad (pp. 39-53) To retrieve this file: GET HARNAD PRV2N1 The Journal of the International Academy of Hospitality Research Lon Savage (pp. 54-66) To retrieve this file: GET SAVAGE PRV2N1 Postmodern Culture: Publishing in the Electronic Medium Eyal Amiran and John Unsworth (pp. 67-76) To retrieve this file: GET AMIRAN PRV2N1 New Horizons in Adult Education: The First Five Years (1987-1991) Jane Hugo and Linda Newell (pp. 77-90) To retrieve this file: GET HUGO PRV2N1 EJournal: An Account of the First Two Years Edward M. Jennings (pp. 91-110) To retrieve this file: GET JENNINGS PRV2N1 The Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues Marcia Tuttle (pp. 111-127) To retrieve this file: GET TUTTLE PRV2N1 COMMUNICATIONS How to Start and Manage a BITNET LISTSERV Discussion Group: A Beginner's Guide Diane Kovacs, Willard McCarty, and Michael Kovacs (pp. 128-143) To retrieve this file: GET KOVACS PRV2N1 Providing Data Services for Machine-Readable Information in an Aca- demic Library: Some Levels of Service Jim Jacobs (pp. 144-160) To retrieve this file: GET JACOBS PRV2N1 COLUMNS Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column Depth vs. Breadth: Enhancement and Retrospective Conversion Walt Crawford (pp. 161-163) To retrieve this file: GET CRAWFORD PRV2N1 Recursive Reviews Copyright, Digital Media, and Libraries Martin Halbert (pp. 164-170) To retrieve this file: GET HALBERT PRV2N1 REVIEWS Libraries, Networks and OSI: A Review, with a Report on North American Developments Reviewed by Clifford A. Lynch (pp. 171-176) To retrieve this file: GET LYNCH PRV2N1 The User's Directory of Computer Networks Reviewed by Dave Cook (pp. 177-181) To retrieve this file: GET COOK PRV2N1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic journal. It is sent free of charge to participants of the Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L), a computer conference on BITNET. To join PACS- L, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L First Name Last Name. The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1991 by the University Libraries, University of Houston, University Park. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all copied material. All commer- cial use requires permission. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. 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. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State Universi- ty), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Black- well's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respectively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NS 6 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES N.S. NUMBER 6 - August 5, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle : RESPONSE FROM ELSEVIER, Dr. H.Laeven SERIALS CANCELLATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, David Jones MORE ON INDEXING, Donna Lively, Ann Okerson MAXWELL WATCH, Deana Astle ARE LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW SUBSIDIZING..., Karen Tallman FROM THE MAILBOX HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET I've been feeling a little guilty for a while because we have never given proper credit to the coiner of the phrase, Hamaker's Haymakers. Hamaker didn't make it up, and I didn't either. It dates from March 1985, when Dr. Ray Wall, deputy librarian at Loughborough University used it during the first annual Learned Journals Seminar in London. He had drawn a marvellous cartoon showing Chuck in boxing trunks standing triumphant over a very dazed British publisher. I wish we could repro- duce it here! : RESPONSE FROM ELSEVIER Dr. H. Laeven, Scientific Editor, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., P.O. Box 330, 1000 AH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [Newsletter 33 carried a letter from Eleanor Cook, Appalachian State University Library, to the Elsevier chairman criticizing Elsevier's decision to launch VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY as a section of ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA (ISSN: 0003-2670) and numbered as part of the parent journal. This is Elsevier's reply. -ed.] Amsterdam, 5 July 1991 Dear Ms. Cook, Re: VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY Thank you for your letter of 20 February 1991 in which you give your reactions concerning inclusion of VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY as a sec- tion of ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA, and the numbering system we have in- troduced for this section. Mr. Kels has passed your letter to me to answer on his behalf, since I am responsible for the acquisitional development of the journal. I am sorry we have not responded earlier, but I wanted to wait until we had made our decision on the 1992 program. If a new journal is to be introduced, we do our utmost to find the optimum structure for its launch, taking into account the interests of all involved. The position of libraries weighs heavily in our decision process, particularly the difficult budgetary situation facing Ameri- can libraries due to the weak dollar. I would like to add, though, that the character of libraries varies considerably. Consequently it is not always possible to meet each individual library's needs com- pletely, as your letter indicates. We also have to take into account the interests of the researcher, both as reader and as author. The author is best served by journals having a wide readership, and the reader by well-focused media which match their area of interest. The publisher operates in this triangle of librarians, authors and readers with partly conflicting interests. I do not want to generalize on Elsevier's publishing policy which goes beyond the issue here, so let us confine the discussion to this specific case. Analytical chemists specialized in applied vibrational spectroscopy have expressed the need for a specialized journal in this field. Al- though there are several general, mainly analytical journals in which they publish their work, they feel that the literature is too scat- tered. Furthermore, quite a number of them have no direct access to the literature concerned, because their library does not subscribe to the broad range of relevant journals. A specialized journal on vibra- tional spectroscopy would collect the core relevant literature in a more affordable format for the libraries. Elsevier responded by investigating the viability of a journal in this field. Because of the reservations of librarians as well as research- ers to new journals, Elsevier is generally reluctant to launch new journals, but for VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY our investigations revealed a strong case for doing do. What are our options in such situation? The first is to launch an independent journal which provides readers and authors access to a specialized medium. However, the relative costs per unit of informa- tion for small specialized journals are higher than for general jour- nals. Indeed, librarians and publishers are confronted with the fact that the total costs of many specialized journals, often with small circulations, are higher than the costs of fewer general journals. Our second option is the one we have chosen after careful considera- tion: the launch of a specialized section of an established general journal. It combines the advantages of both the general and special- ized journal: a lower price per unit of information and the focus required by the researcher. ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA subscribers receive the section automatically at a lower price, while libraries which have decided not to subscribe to ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA can subscribe to the new section alone, albeit at a higher price. We realize that this option may satisfy the vibrational spectroscopists more than each individual library. Your response and that of others, however, has led us to reevaluate our decision. We have decided to introduce the option of making ANALY- TICA CHIMICA ACTA available without the section VIBRATIONAL SPECTROS- COPY from 1992 onwards. By enabling libraries to combine a subscrip- tion to ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA with one for VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY at a reduced price, most of the advantages of the current structure can be maintained. It should be clear, however, that uncoupling might eventually result in a higher average subscription price to VIBRATION- AL SPECTROSCOPY. The second general point you raised in your letter is the numbering system. This is a long-standing problem for many journals, and appar- ently an adequate solution has yet to be found. A double numbering system is desirable in this case to avoid gaps in the ANALYTICA CHIMI- CA ACTA numbering, while providing VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY subscrib- ers with a numbering system starting with Volume 1. In the next few months, however, we will weigh options for a better numbering system. We appreciate librarians' feedback on their experiences with any of our products and we believe that improvements can be found via open discussion. I hope that you will share this letter with your col- leagues via the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues, so that other librarians are informed of our position. SERIALS CANCELLATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA David Jones, Science and Technology Library, University of Alberta, djones@ualtavm.bitnet. The University of Alberta is cutting $600,000 from its 1991/92 serials commitments in response to a static materials budget and a restructur- ing of the materials budget process. This represents a cut of 17.7 percent of the overall commitment for serials (excluding carry-for- wards). The cuts are also designed to redress the serials/monograph ratio, which would have reached 85/15 using the previous budget model. In the previous model, "fixed" or "overhead" costs (postage and bind- ing) were a first charge against the materials budget. Next came the serials commitment, based on the previous year's serials expenditures. The balance remaining was allocated for monograph purchases. This year the "overheads" have been augmented by the new federal Goods and Serv- ices Tax (GST) at a net rate of 2.31 percent, yielding a charge of $113,000. Estimated postage and binding costs are $300,000, yielding a total overhead of $413,000. The calculated inflation on the serials (1990/91 expenditures less 1989/90 expenditures) was approximately $300,000. The new budget philosophy shares the "overheads" on a 70/30 basis between serials and monographs. This yields a serials responsibility for approximately $300,000 of overheads ($413,000 x 0.7 = $289,100) to be absorbed along with the $300,000 inflation, to give an overall serials cancellation target of $600,000. As a result of this change in budgeting, the monographs budget ends up with an additional $300,000 and the overall serials/monographs ratio drops to 70/30. The suballocation, among the 9 major library units, of this serials cancellation target has been weighed to reflect the relative inflation rate for each unit vis-a-vis the overall rate for the library system as a whole. These rates were developed in a manner to neutralize any exchange rate fluctuations. These rates ranged from 0.33 for biblio- graphic tools in our Technical Services Unit, through 0.61 for Educa- tion, 0.78 for Humanities and Social Sciences, 1.06 for Science and Technology, to 1.28 for Health Sciences titles. The actual unit can- cellation targets were calculated by multiphying the Overall Target ($600,000) by the Unit Inflation Factor by the Unit Share of Total Serials Commitment. For example, the SciTech Library accounts for 44 percent of the total serials commitment. Its target calculated as $600,000 x 0.44 x 1.06 = $280,276, or 18.7 percent of the SciTech serials commitment. How we tackled the challenge of identifying this large a sector of our collection for cancellation is another story. If we aren't completely tarred and feathered by our Faculty members (who have been involved in the process), I'll tell in a month or so when the evil deed's been done! MORE ON INDEXING Donna Lively, University of Texas at Arlington, B366DPL@UTARLVM1. BITNET; Ann Okerson, Association for Research Libraries, OKERSON@ UMDC.BITNET. LIVELY: Regarding the comments on indexing of electronic journals in NS 5, I believe that Norman Stevens has put his finger on it. The most effective method for accessing the information in electronic journals would logically be a type of "free form text searching." With more and more journals reproducing themselves in electronic form it waits only for some enterpr