>
> From:
> "Pakala, Jim" <Jim.Pakala_at_covenantseminary.edu>
>
>
> Colleagues: If you have any insights re this they’d be appreciated.
> These 3 short posts (the first two mine) are from Atlantis, the
> listserv of ATLA (American Theological Library Association). The
> larger thread was initiated by college and university members on
> Atlantis who of course serve an array of disciplines.
>
> Jim
>
> James C. Pakala jim.pakala_at_covenantseminary.edu
> <mailto:jim.pakala_at_covenantseminary.edu>
> Library Director Phone: 314-434-4044 x4101; Fax 314-434-4819
> Covenant Theological Seminary
> 12330 Conway Road; St. Louis, MO 63141-8697
>
> I stand in part corrected (thanks to staff). We deflect *all *ILL
> requests for e-journal articles. Reasons (besides those I gave
> [immediately below] in the thread) are that we are a net lender (3,259
> items sent vs. 2,218 borrowed last year) and the choice
> technologically today is either to deflect all e-journal requests or
> go through over 20,000 journal titles and select, but even that
> involves a technically onerous procedure that we’ve used only to block
> a few (otherwise circulating) books we won’t interlibrary loan.
>
> BTW, our A-to-Z List threshold is 20,000 journal titles and we’ve
> already exceeded that with a big new package [Business] our major
> consortium just got us (at least for FY2010). What would you do? We
> can’t afford the next highest threshold and because we’re a seminary
> and the vast majority of these e-journals are not very relevant, why
> would we pay more even if we could? But, now thousands of titles (over
> the 20,000 threshold) are available but hidden.
>
> Jim
>
> I agree with Sharon and would add only one new thing to subsequent
> messages*:* *deflection*. That is the new, ominous, but necessary
> process of automatically punting miscellaneous ILL requests for
> e-journal articles rather than filling those requests. Sometimes legal
> or contractual reasons account for this, but it is also a matter of
> priorities. Our library deflects in the case of`, e.g., a request from
> xyz college student for an article in /Medical Esoteric Metrics
> /[fictitous title] that's among thousands of e-journals we "get"; and,
> even if the journal is free the person may not know that and because
> of the number of such requests and irrelevance to our mission we deflect.
>
> Jim Pakala
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* Sharon
> *Sent:* Tue 7/14/2009 1:18 PM
> *To:* atlantis
> *Subject:* RE: [atlantis] raising journal costs
>
> Great question Ken. If currency is an issue for your institution, then
> print copies continue to be necessary. I am not as sanguine about
> canceling print as some of my colleagues. As I have said elsewhere, we
> risk being at the mercy of ejournal vendors who can raise prices at
> will and even eliminate titles if they wish. (JSTOR and other archival
> programs excepted). We have seen what happens when journals switch
> publishers and the prices went up dramatically. Imagine what could
> happen if a vendor that carries half your ejournal titles is bought
> out by another company and the prices double in one fell swoop. You
> can’t drop a few titles to eke by. When you subscribe to an ejournal
> you are basically leasing access. When the lease is up (with a few
> exceptions) you have nothing. At least with print copies you have
> something. For the record, I am not opposed to ejournals and, yes, we
> have access to many ejournal titles in my library. I am not a
> curmudgeon--- usually. In fact, should the worst happen, I am sure
> some library ----maybe even PTS--- might deign to provide scanned
> copies on ILL to all of you who cancel your paper copies. J
>
> /Sharon/
>
Received on Fri Jul 17 2009 - 03:07:57 EDT