Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 099 (November 21, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns099 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 99 -- November 21, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 99.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle 99.2 PUBLICATION OF CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, Dana L. Roth 99.3 REPORT OF THE SEMINAR "SHOULD LIBRARIANS BECOME PUBLISHERS?" Eleanor Cook 99.4 POST CHARLESTON THOUGHTS, Susan Zappen 99.1 FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. I am pleased to announce that Fred Friend, Librarian, University College, London, has agreed to join the newsletter's editorial board, effective immediately. Fred is one of the most valued contributors to the newsletter and brings a welcome British perspective to the issues discussed here. Those of you who send messages to the newsletter by fax or postal service, please note that the editor has both a new fax number and a new mailing address. They are listed at the end of this issue. 99.2 PUBLICATION OF CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Dana L. Roth, Caltech, DZRLIB@ROMEO.CALTECH.EDU. Serious journal price inflation has been a fact of life for over ten years. The costs of journals published by societies (e.g. AIP, ACS, AMS, etc.) have largely been related to increased size and production costs. The costs of commercially published journals (e.g. Pergamon Press, Elsevier Science Publishers and Gordon & Breach), however, are additionally related to the revaluation of European currencies and a dramatic increase in the number of special issues, many of which contain conference proceedings or abstracts. In a recent `advertorial' that appeared in various library magazines, Else- vier defended the practice of publishing conference proceedings in journal issues on the basis that they were "devoted to proceedings of an interna- tional conference in a specific research field -- usually where important, cutting edge results are reported. The high quality of these special issues derives from a distinctive multi-phase selection process. Proceedings is- sues also have advantages in speed, economy and effectiveness of dissemi- nation." Suffice it to say that the publication of proceedings papers (by Elsevier) in journal issues is equivalent to that for referred journal articles. The question in my mind relates to Elsevier`s questionable definitions of `speed' and `economy.' Why do Elsevier's conference papers, for example, deserve the enormous expense of `journal' publication which also results in their appearance, in print, many months after the conference date, while others (e.g. American Chemical Society divisional preprints) are published to coincide with the conference presentations and are priced at little more than the cost of off-set reproduction. I am not arguing for or against the importance of publishing conference papers, but I feel that their very nature (preliminary, speculative, establishment of priority, etc.) argues strongly against Elsevier`s `Rolls-Royce' refereeing and publication prac- tices. The Caltech Libraries have been analyzing journal issues for conference proceedings for nearly 10 years. Analytic entries are added to CLAS (the Caltech Libraries Automated System) and appear in `new book' lists circu- lated to faculty and students. From my regular observation of these lists, proceedings issues rarely appear less than a year after the conference was held. This makes the claims of `speed' suspect and, at a cost often in excess of $200 each, the claims of `economy' are hardly worthy of comment. I would further submit that representative examples of journal price in- creases in the 1990s suggest that commercial publication of scientific journals can not continue under the present rules. Commercial publishers and their editors must seek to resolve the current pricing dilemma so that, at the least, subscription rates do not increase in the foreseeable future and, at the best, substantially decrease. Library journal budgets are lit- erally in the throes of a death spiral, with increasing subscription costs forcing increased cancellations which in turn increase subscription costs. I would suggest that as a first small step towards stabilizing the current situation, the `Rolls-Royce' publication of conference proceedings be term- inated and replaced with preprints supplied at the cost of off-set repro- duction and postage. 99.3 REPORT OF THE SEMINAR: "SHOULD LIBRARIANS BECOME PUBLISHERS?" HELD NOVEMBER 3, 1993, OMNI HOTEL, CHARLESTON, SC Eleanor Cook, Appalachian State University, cookei@conrad.appstate.edu. This Society for Scholarly Publishing seminar, the brainchild of John Berry (Chief Editor, Library Journal) and Katina Strauch (College of Charleston & of Charleston Conference fame) had as its goal, an examination of new emerging roles librarians may be embracing as we march into the great elec- tronic future. As the promotional flyer suggested: "With the advent of electronic publishing, the standard roles of each participant in the schol- arly communication process shift. This workshop examines such a shift as we ask: 'Should Librarians Become Publishers?'" A strange question, perhaps. As both a participant and a speaker, I was perplexed and intrigued by this question. What does it mean? It's the kind of risky proposition for which SSP is becoming known. SSP seminars can be downright amazing sometimes. They are smaller than what we are used to and the intimacy fosters the exchanges we crave. If you work for any kind of academic concern and you care about scholarship, I urge you to join SSP. It's a wonderful investment and you can get discounts on a number of excellent publications to which you may not normally consider subscribing personally. This seminar was a risk for a number of reasons. First, it was hastily thrown together. Second, the timing was dicey. Scheduling it against Charleston Conference preconferences was a gamble. The original registra- tion price was simply too steep, given the circumstances. The fee was re- duced at the last minute, which certainly helped, but may have been too late in coming. The end result was a registration of twenty-something. However, the number felt right. A bigger group may have been more difficult to entertain. What this group got for its money was a seed planted, not an entire crop harvested. The benefits of the discussions may require some time to take root. John Berry began the morning with an overview to set the stage. Becky Len- zini, President of CARL Systems, Inc., held forth under the heading "Brave New Author." In her commentary, Becky discussed some of the new questions scholarly authors must ask themselves when attempting to publish. As an author herself, Becky has had to grapple, for instance, with the fact that a major library science publisher refuses to allow CARL UnCover to deliver their articles. Next, Joe Boykin (Dean of Libraries, Clemson University) entertained the notion of the "Brave New Library." A major point was that our universities' "customers" (students) can no longer afford our services (those of the university), just as we librarians are having a hard time coping with ma- terials price increases. Boykin, a self-avowed "techie," suggests that academic departments will someday soon be able to mount their own scholarly writings and research on a national network without going through tradi- tional outside publishers. He also suggests, especially for state-affilia- ted universities, that mandates for increased emphasis on teaching and service, not research, will have an impact on the amount of publishing put forth. Next, John Cox, (Managing Director, B.H. Blackwell, Ltd.), laid out some basic principles of international copyright law for us to ponder. As a follow-up, Eleanor Cook (Serials Librarian, Appalachian State University) made some general comments about the earlier presentations and then dis- cussed the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) Model Copyright Docu- ment. (Cook is a former employee of two of three institutions of TRLN, but makes no claim to represent the document officially; she is grateful to Gary Byrd, UNC-Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library and a member of the TRLN Task Force, for providing her with supporting documentation.) The biggest concern expressed about the TRLN document had to do with the document's practicality. If we can barely keep up with permissions when publishers pool these rights, how will we ever be able to deal with millions of auth- ors retaining their rights? As Katina pointed out, creative authors have always traditionally retained their rights, so is it really a problem for the rest of scholarly publishing? Perhaps with non-exclusive licensing options, the model would work. Unfortunately, time prevented us from delv- ing further into these issues. After the lunch break, Ann Hartman, President of Research Publications, Inc., talked about the concept of "librarian as author," and how librarians can aid commercial producers in the repackaging of scholarly materials. In return for their assistance, libraries may gain valuable compensation, plus they can aid in the dissemination of unique resources. Next, Richard Abel (Consultant, formerly Editor-in-Chief, Timber Press and living legend in our field) discussed the idea of the death of the scholar- ly monograph coupled with the future of print media in the emerging elec- tronic environment. Like John Berry, Abel focused on the broader concepts that link us conceptually and intellectually to new trends. Abel insists that traditional codex technology will never die completely; it's so well geared to the way human beings think. Julia Gammon (Head of Acquisitions, University of Akron Library AND Market- ing Manager, University of Akron Press) gave us a delightful and insightful interlude on the role of partnership between librarians and publishers. She shared her experience being involved in her school's university press. Be sure and ask her about her marvelous overhead of the Indianapolis race car! Frank Grisham (Executive Director, SOLINET) closed the day with musings on "Consortium as Publisher." His observation that our profession has become increasingly multi-layered hit home with a number of the participants. Potentially, we pay dues to organizations all the way from the local level to the international level; these multiple layers are often duplicative and expensive to maintain. Are they all necessary? Another critical point he made was that the library community may be closed out of the media "loop" if we are not vigilant. Cable companies, TV stations, newspapers, wire services, and telecommunication companies are banding together to gain access to the national information highway. They may simply run over li- braries and publishers if we do not assert ourselves as equal players. We must find ways to be included in these new initiatives or we will be left out of the planning. In retrospect, it was a productive and engaging seminar, though I must admit the participants did not have as much energy as I had hoped. We all are feeling a bit burned out by these issues. Still, I think the process of writing this summary has made me realize the true value of the experi- ence. Bringing people together to look at a pervasive problem in a slightly new way is an interesting exercise. I encourage SSP to continue to organize these innovative seminars. Many thanks to Jill O'Neill (Marketing Manager for Elsevier and Member of the SSP Education Committee) and Connie Maslow (Director of Meetings, SSP) for their tireless efforts to get this meeting together. 99.4 POST CHARLESTON THOUGHTS Susan Zappen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, zappes@rpi.edu. The Charleston Conference always provides plenty of food for thought. The flight home provided me with time to digest some of the issues and ideas discussed at the conference. The university library's mission has not changed in the post-subscription era. Our goal remains to satisfy the educational and research needs of our patrons. The changes in this new era are in what we do to achieve our goal and in how, when, and where we do it. We purchase less and are more selec- tive in what we do buy. Just-in-case has been replaced by just-in-time acquisitions. We provide electronic access and request services 24 hours a day. We use document delivery services to transmit requested information to patrons quickly. Patrons no longer have to enter a library building or use the information system during business hours or wait weeks for requested information. Libraries and librarians' job responsibilities no longer re- semble what they were 10 years ago. The only constant is the library mis- sion. What about publishers? I assume that their goal has been to produce a qual- ity product (book or journal) that is also profitable. I also assume that this goal is the same in the post-subscription era. But what are the chan- ges in the what, how, when, and where of publishing? I don't know. I'm not sure that publishers know either. Asking libraries to buy more titles to keep unit costs down won't work. That is an approach linked to a past era. Publishing a cd-rom version of a paper title adds to the formats available, but has publishing changed? If the issue is scholarly communication rather than scholarly publishing, as Clifford Lynch suggests, publishers need to radically rethink what they are about, what they do, and how and when they do it. It is no longer business as usual. Confused? Me too. I would like to hear from publishers. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_ are made on the responsibility of the authors alone, and do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the editorial board, or the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published by the editor through the Office of Information Technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. 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