Library cancelations

From: Paul M. Gherman <Gherman_at_LIBRARY.VANDERBILT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 17:37:31 +0100

As a library director, I second Steve Harnad's observation that
libraries will not quickly cancel journal subscriptions because of lanl
or other self-archiving ventures.

With all the many electronic versions of journals now available, very
few paper subscriptions have been cancelled by libraries. As
institutions we are very cautious about abandoning time honored
traditions, and we are not yet satisfied that the long term archiving
issues have been addressed. Likewise, our faculty resist our cancelling
paper subscriptions, although our students no longer care to use paper
journals over the electronic version.

Many of us subscribe to JSTOR but very few have discarded the paper
back runs. We just subscribed to Elsevier's Science Direct, the
electronic version of all 1100 of their journals, but we have yet to
cancel a single paper journal.

I believe we will in time, but not quickly.

Paul M. Gherman
University Librarian
611B General Library
419 21st Avenue South
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37240
Office: (615) 322-7120
Fax: (615) 343-8279
gherman_at_library.vanderbilt.edu
Received on Wed Feb 10 1999 - 19:17:43 GMT