I believe we might be in a better position to assess the validity of
Hendersons's argument if we had a more concrete sense of its fiscal
implications. Let's assume for the moment that he had gotten his wish,
and libraries had been given enough money to continue purchasing all of
the journals deemed appropriate for their collections-or at least
funding indexed to the increases in expenditures for academic research
in the last few decades. What might a typical, ARL-size science
library's budget look like today? If he could give us a ballpark idea,
it could serve as a reality-check of his
give-the-librarians-all-the-money-they-need-solution to our problem.
For that matter, if we could even know what it would cost now to
re-subscribe to all of Gordon & Breach's journals, it could be quite
illuminating. My experience with that publisher has been that they are
very wary of publishing price information. Their web site keeps warning
me that pricing information is temporarily unavailable, and I have never
seen a printed list that spells out what one would end up paying for a G
& B journal in one year. Perhaps Henderson-with his ties to G &
B-could assist us here.
Stevan Harnad wrote:
>
> On Thu, 25 Jan 2001, Albert Henderson wrote:
>
> > Universities across the country
> > have undermined their faculty and researchers by
> > ... cutting library spending
> > while adding to profits and administrative growth...
> >
> > ... Stevan will probably censor
> > my posting, as he often does with the claim that
> > it is irrelevant...
>
> I let it go through this time, but let that be the end of it.
>
> We all know Al thinks there would be no research impact/access problem
> at all if universities would onlt stop hoarding their limitless resources
> and instead spending them instead on S/L/P, where they belong...
>
> It is not that this sinister hypothesis is "irrelevant," but that it is
> false, and does not become less so by dint of endless repetition.
>
> Besides, all Greg had asked for was an eprint of Al's paper, a request
> far closer to the heart of the matter under discussion here than Al's
> conspiracy theory.
>
> Stevan Harnad
--
Kendall Rouse, Head, Chemistry Library
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1101 University Ave.
Madison WI 53706
Telephone: 608-2622942 FAX: 608-2629002 Email:
krouse_at_library.wisc.edu
Received on Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT