Subject: Re: Library Link discussion (fwd)
Guedon Jean-Claude (guedon@ERE.UMontreal.CA)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:35:14 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:35:14 -0500 (EST) From: Guedon Jean-Claude <guedon@ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Re: Library Link discussion (fwd) To: arl-ejournal@arl.org In-Reply-To: <001f01be46f0$0dd65c00$8c5eac3e@default> Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9901232347.E4677-0100000@esi25.ESI.UMontreal.CA>
On 23 Jan 1999, Anthony Watkinson <anthony.watkinson@BTinternet.com> wrote:
>
> On 23 Jan 1999, Tony Barry <tonyb@dynamite.com.au> wrote:
> >
> > On 22/1/99, Chris Keenan <ckeenan@mcb.co.uk> quoting comments from
> > the current Library Link discussion wrote:
> > >
> > >"If a publisher is not prepared to allow for archival copying of
> > > electronic journals ... avoid dealing with that publisher"
> >
> > I'd go further. If a journal is not made available under reasonable
> > conditions electronically such as -
> >
> > No requirement to subscribe to the print version
> > A subscription price for the electronic version lower
> > than the print version
> > Clear permission for fair dealing
> > Access at the article level as an alternative to subscription
> > The retention of electronic publishing rights by the author
> >
> > Then I would suggest -
> >
> > Do not submit papers to that journal
> > Do not cite work written in that journal
> > Do not act as a referee or provide editorial assistance
> > Encourage staff and colleagues to do the same
> > Advocate that libraries cancel such journals
> >
> > This is my practice. I commend it to others.
> >
> > I might make exceptions for journals directed to a clientele in
> > economically deprived countries or published there.
>
> Although I agree with many of the sentiments expressed by Tony Barry
> and Chris Keenan about how and at what prices electronic versions of
> journals should be made available, are they not getting slightly out of
> touch with the nature of the duties of librarians to library patrons.
> If patrons need particular journals in their research or teaching and
> these journals are at the top of any prioritisation by them of their
> needs, surely a librarian should subscribe to these journals, subject
> to funding. If I was the person responsible for funding the library
> concerned, and cut off the funding because I did not like policies of
> the acquisition librarians, would that be more or less reasonable than
> Mr. Barry's statements?
This is an interesting comment and one that recurs regularly when
speaking with librarians. The problem, IMHO, stems from our mistaken
view of the library as a mere service to "patrons". On a campus,
librarians and scholars form the two ends of a continuous chain.
Scholars are not being serviced by some sector of the university
that, from their perspective, is spending too much of the budget
anyway. Scholars produce scientific information and use it.
Libraries add value to that information by storing it, ordering it
and cataloguing it in various ways. Without libraries, their
catalogues and bibliographies, scholalry journals would quickly look
like a big pile of paper. As a result, scholars should also learn
to weigh their quests for visibility against journal costs so as to
downplay collectively the excessively costly journals. Sometimes,
choosing a different journal than the absolute most prestigious one
is almost as good on the professional level, and it costs far less
to the libraries. Making scholars more sensitive to this issue
appears to be an important step in that direction. In this fashion,
campuses could begin to act as coherent wholes, scientific information
can flow more freely and situations where 40% profit are made
(e.g. Elsevier as recently reported in Le Monde in Paris) can be
better resisted.
In other words, when librarians are trying to hold the line, scholars
should not just simply seek the highest visibility possible at whatever
cost; rather, they should calculate a couple moves ahead and see that by
choosing tactics that would be mutually acceptable both to them as a
group, and to librarians as a group, university budgets might be better
off, university life might also become better, etc...
In conclusion, strategic concertation is needed between scholars and
librarians and to achieve genuine concertation, scholars must stop
treating libraries as mere services. Combined with strategic alliances
among libraries, this suggestion could greatly strengthen the scholarly
communities and the libraries against the predatory tactics of several
large commercial publishers. Here again, I am thinking about Elsevier,
of course, but they are not alone, alas.
My two (Canadian :-) ) cents worth...
Jean-Claude Guedon
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Jean-Claude Guedon Tel. 514-343-6208
Departement de litterature comparee Fax. 514-343-2211
Universite de Montreal
CP 6128, Succursale "Centre-ville" Surfaces
Montreal, Qc H3C 3J7
Canada http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/revues/surfaces/
See you at INET'99, San Jose, June 22-25, 1999
http://www.isoc.org/inet99
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