Re: Individual vs. institutional subscriptions -- Andrea Hall Stephen Clark 06 Dec 2001 15:25 UTC
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Individual vs. institutional subscriptions -- Buddy Pennington Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 08:46:40 -0500 From: Hall Andrea <ahall@MADONNA.EDU> The advice we received about using the individual subscription is simply that it infringes on the copyright laws. That's why an institutional subscription is more money. Many people will be using and copying articles from the journal as opposed to only one person. Andrea Hall Serials Assistant Madonna University Library 36600 Schoolcraft Rd. Livonia, MI 48150-1176 734-432-5692 ahall@madonna.edu -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Individual vs. institutional subscriptions -- Ellen Simmons Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 15:20:43 -0600 From: "MD_Buddy (Buddy Pennington)" <MD_Buddy@kclibrary.org> I don't know the legality here, but it seems to me that the publisher may have a problem with a library, which is an institution, claiming it is an individual when it subscribes to a journal. Even if you say you are ordering a journal on a faculty member's behalf, if the library is paying for it and it is being housed in the library for general use, that falls under the instutional rate not the individual rate. The only real power libraries have here is to call up the publisher and complain about the price discrepancies and/or let them know that is why you are not subscribing to that title. It may not make much difference, but I do not think unethical practices by libraries is the way to combat these practices by the publishers. It is the market economy at work. A producer puts a price on it and you either buy it or you don't (or you haggle over the price). To me, what you are suggesting is similar to getting a database and misrepresenting the number of students you have to get a cheaper price on it. Buddy Pennington Document Delivery Librarian Kansas City Public Library md_buddy@kclibrary.org 816-701-3552 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Individual vs. institutional subscriptions Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:11:24 -0600 From: Ellen Simmons <esimmons@acad.udallas.edu> Susan Shelly wrote: >>>The faculty members are willing to pass their issues along to the library. The library would pay for the individual subscription. >>> Yes, you are right that such an arrangement would save the library thousands of dollars, but you are probably also right that many libraries and librarians (not to mention publishers) would consider this a questionable ethical practice. >>From what I understand, the institutional rate is higher (tremendously higher it seems) because the journal will be made available to a higher number of users - an unlimited number of users, if you will, where an individual subscription is confined (theoretically) to one user, or at least a small base of users (a family or household). True, every library receives donated items. However, if your library pays for the subscription that goes to a faculty member, how is that considered a donation? This seems ethically hazy since the library is paying for one use and offering unlimited use. We receive donated _issues_ of a journal, which often will include every issue in a given volume/year, and then we count ourselves lucky. If an issue is missing, we're stuck. Depending on donated issues as a substitute for a subscription is not reliable, of course, so we do not represent these journal titles as being active or anything that we can count on, and we pay no part of their cost. We checked with our University lawyers before making the decision to add these donated issues to our collection. There is an old saying, "you can justify anything," so some may see this practice in shades of ethical gray, as well. Ellen Simmons Periodicals Librarian University of Dallas Library 1845 E. Northgate Drive Irving, Texas 75062 Phone: 972 721-4130 Fax: 972 721-4010 email: esimmons@acad.udallas.edu