ALCTS Network News v8n10 (November 22, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/ann/ann-v8n10 ISSN: 1056-6694 ALCTS NETWORK NEWS An electronic publication of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Volume 8, Number 10 November 22, 1994 In this issue NEW ALCTS LISTSERVS ESTABLISHED PRICE INDEX FOR U.S. DAILY NEWSPAPERS, 1994 DEANNA B. MARCUM NAMED CLR PRESIDENT ************************************************************************** NEW ALCTS LISTSERVS ESTABLISHED The ALCTS Office has, at the request of several offices, set up listservs on which committees can conduct business electronically. Participation in the discussion is limited to members of the committees, but anyone may send messages to the lists. The listservs established so far are: ALCTS Board of Directors alctsbd@uicvm ALCTS Planning Committee alctscop@uicvm Cataloging and Classification Section Executive Committee ccs-exec@uicvm Acquisitions Section Executive Committee alcts-as@uicvm Cataloging and Classification Section Policy and Research Committee ccs-prc@uicvm Council of Regional Groups alctscrg@uicvm A message sent to any of these lists will be distributed to all its committee members. To send to a list using the Internet address, follow the list address above with .uic.edu. The lists are unmoderated, but only the committee members are subscribers. If you send a message to a list, replies will go back to you only -- unless the committee member replying to your comment copies her or his comments to the list as well. ************************************************************************* PRICE INDEX FOR U.S. DAILY NEWSPAPERS, 1994 This year marks the return of the U.S. Daily Newspaper Price Index sponsored by the Library Materials Price Index Committee (LMPIC) of ALA's Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. The U.S. Daily Newspaper Price Index was last published in the 1990-91 _Bowker Annual of Library and Book Trade Information_ and provided data through 1988. This year's index was guided by the criteria set forth in the ANSI standard (Z39.20-1983) for newspaper price indexes. (1) U.S. daily newspapers selected for the study include the "Top One Hundred Daily Newspapers in the United States According to Circulation" in the _Editor and Publisher International Yearbook_, papers from large metropolitan areas listed in the _State and Metropolitan Area Data Book_ and the _Rand-McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide_, as well as a newspaper from each state capital. (2) The list of titles was first established in early 1992, and it has since changed in response to developments in the U.S. newspaper industry. Newspaper publishing was a booming business in the 1980s, but "the 1990s kicked off with what is acknowledged to be the worst newspaper recession since World War II." (3) The recession stemmed from a significant drop in advertising and changing demographic trends. According to the _Washington Journalism Review_, "the number of Americans who read newspapers regularly [has] declined ." (4) This decline is particularly noticeable in the case of evening papers, as more and more people choose to watch the nightly news instead. Because of this trend, evening papers are increasingly likely to merge with their jointly-owned but competing morning counterparts or to cease publication entirely. In cases where mergers occurred, the index's list of titles was adjusted to reflect the new title. In cases where a title ceased, it was dropped from the list because a substitute did not exist. Despite these changes, the list of titles still includes at least two papers from each of the fifty states. While the ANSI Z39.20-1983 standard calls for pricing information to be obtained primarily through a mail survey or, as a last resort, from the _ABC Newspaper Blue Books_, this index is based upon subscription prices and historical price analyses provided by EBSCO Subscription Services. This deviation is justified by the impractical nature of a mail survey and the rich historical information available in EBSCO's database. It is also in keeping with the LMPIC's use of vendor-supplied data in other price indexes. Variations in the number of titles covered by the index stem from the title changes mentioned above and the occasional lack of a complete price history for a title in the EBSCO database. As the ANSI standard mandates, the index uses mail subscription rates for all papers since most libraries do not receive their newspapers from carriers. In some cases, newspapers charge all mail subscribers one uniform rate. In many other instances, however, mail rates for U.S. newspapers vary based upon the region to which the paper is being sent. Some papers, for example, charge all in-state mail subscribers one rate and all out-of-state mail subsribers a second, higher rate. Other dailies have more complex systems of charging for mail delivery based upon the subscriber's zip code. In general, the more distant the subscriber is from the place where the paper is published, the more expensive the subscription will be. In an effort to compensate for these geographic variations, the price index uses the rates charged to a fictional library with a zip code in the 60000's, or roughly in the center of the continental U.S. Newspapers' relations with mail subscribers and vendors seem just as unorthodox to serials librarians as their pricing structures. Subscription prices are apt to increase at any time in the year, and subscribers and vendors are usually not aware of the changes until the issues stop arriving. Given the haphazard way in which the prices of dailies increase, this index will be based on title prices in the EBSCO database in January of any subscription year. Comments about the U.S. Daily Newspaper Price Index should be addressed to Genevieve S. Owens, Jefferson Library, University of Missouri - St. Louis, or Wilba Swearingen, LSU Medical Center Library - New Orleans. The authors wish to thank Kathleen Born and Mary Beth Vanderpoorten of EBSCO Subscription Services for their assistance with the preparation of this index. U.S. Daily Newspapers: Average Prices and Price Increases, 1990-1994 (Index Base: 1990 = 100) Average Percent Year No. of Titles Price Increase Index 1990 165 $189.58 0.0 100.0 1991 166 $198.13 4.5 104.5 1992 167 $222.68 12.4 117.5 1993 171 $229.92 3.3 121.3 1994 171 $261.91 13.9 138.2 ************************ (1) American Standards Institute. American National Standard for Library and Information Sciences and Related Publishing Practices--Library Materials--Criteria for Price Indexes. ANSI Z39.20-1983. New York, 1983. (2) _The Nashville Banner_ and _The Tennessean_, the two daily newspapers from Tennessee's capital, must be ordered direct and are therefore excluded from the study. (3) George Garneau, "The go-go years are gone," _Editor and Publisher_ 125 (May 2, 1992): 18. (4) Cynthia Mann, "Death in the afternoon," _Washington Journalism Review_ 14 (April 1992): 14. -- Genevieve S. Owens and Wilba Swearingen ************************************************************************* DEANNA B. MARCUM NAMED CLR PRESIDENT The Council on Library Resources (CLR) has named Deanna B. Marcum as its fifth president, effective January 1, 1995. The announcement was made at its annual Board of Directors meeting on November 8, 1994. She will succeed W. David Penniman, who has resigned his position as president effective December 31, 1994, after serving for the past four years. Marcum is well known to the Council, having served as its vice president from 1984 to 1989. She is currently Director of Public Service and Collection Management at the Library of Congress. Before serving in that position, she was Dean of the School of Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America. Other previous positions include Senior Consultant, Information Services Consultants, Inc.; Management Training Specialist, Association of Research Libraries; Assistant Director for Public Services and Personnel, Joint University Libraries (now Vanderbilt University Library); and a variety of technical services positions at the University of Kentucky Libraries. She has an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Illinois, a Master of Library Science degree from the ddiversity of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland. She recently authored _Good Books in a Country Home: The Public Library as Cultural Force in Hagerstown, Maryland, 1878-1920_. ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ALCTS NETWORK NEWS (ISSN 1056-6694) is published irregularly by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. Editorial offices: ALCTS, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; Robert P. Holley, President; Karen Muller, Executive Director. Editor: Karen Whittlesey (u34261@uicvm); Editorial Advisory Board: Jennifer Younger, Robert P. Holley, David Farrell; Editorial Assistance: Karen Muller ALCTS NETWORK NEWS is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the division. News items should be sent to the editor at the e-mail address above. 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