Email list hosting service & mailing list manager


Re: Institutional versus personal subscriptions Kim Maxwell 31 May 2006 21:59 UTC

I'm not a legal expert by any means, but I don't think your book example is
the same thing as a journal subscription.  Books normally have a single
price that anyone can pay to buy the book.  Journals have subscription rates
for individuals and others for institutions; whether you agree with the
pricing model or not, that's what it is.  Intentionally purchasing
subscriptions at an individual rate (or having someone else purchase them at
the individual rate) knowing that your ultimate purpose in purchasing the
subscriptions will be to provide them to an institution seems ethically
wrong to me.  I don't have a problem when it's something like Smithsonian or
Time, where there's a single subscription price for all, but it's a
different thing when the prices are differentiated as they are.

Kim Maxwell

_________________________________________________
Kim Maxwell
Serials Acquisitions Librarian
Associate Head, Acquisitions & Licensing Services
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Libraries, Room 14E-210
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
phone: 1-617-253-7028
fax:   1-617-253-2464
email: kmaxwell@mit.edu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Pennington, Buddy D.
> Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 3:11 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Institutional versus personal subscriptions
>
> I believe it is perfectly fine under the first sale doctrine.
>  It would be like someone purchasing a book and then
> immediately donating that book to the library.
>
> Like Lee Ann, we also have some titles where faculty donate
> their issues to the library.  And we also have problems such
> as getting the issues in a timely manner and not getting all
> the issues.  Therefore, we have internally coded these titles
> as personal gift titles and we have a public note that
> indicates that since these are personally donated, we
> typically get them later than usual and that we often do not
> get all the issues for a particular volume.
>
> So, to make a long story short, the physicians are within
> their rights to donate these to your library and you can use
> them. However, there is usually a downgrade in the service
> you'll be providing your users (getting the issues later than
> subscribing libraries or not getting all the issues).
>
>
>
> Buddy Pennington
> Serial Acquisitions Librarian
> UMKC - University Libraries
> 800 E. 51st Street
> Kansas City, MO  64110
> 816-235-1548
> 816-333-5584 (fax)
> penningtonb@umkc.edu
>
> UMKC University Libraries: Connecting Learners to the World
> of Knowledge
>
> www.umkc.edu/lib
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Howlett, Lee Ann
> Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 1:34 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Institutional versus personal subscriptions
>
> We've had various physicians do this for us over the years by
> subscribing and then immediately giving us the issue when it arrives.
> Unfortunately, it never seemed to work out.  We never managed
> to obtain all of the issues for a volume from anyone.
>
> People mean well when they offer to do this but, in my
> experience, something always happens where they either forget
> to send an issue on or they wanted to keep just 'that one'.
>
> Sincerely,
> Lee Ann Howlett
> _________________________________
> Lee Ann Howlett, MA
> Head, Serials, Dept.
> Shimberg Health Sciences Library
> University of South Florida
> 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 31
> Tampa, FL  33612
> (813) 974-9080
> (813) 974-7032 (fax)
> Email:  LHOWLETT@HEALTH.USF.EDU
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
> [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Bluhm-Stieber, Hella
> Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 12:27 PM
> To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject: [SERIALST] Institutional versus personal subscriptions
>
>
> Hello all,
> We are facing severe budget cuts and need to cancel half of
> our journal subscriptions. The suggestion was made to ask for
> donations from physicians who subscribe to certain journals
> the library needs. We are concerned about the legal
> implications of this. We explained to our management that we
> think that this is against copyright law.
> One problem is that the doctors can pay for subscriptions
> through their educational fund, but cannot donate money from it.
>
> We think that the donors would have to pay for an
> institutional copy in order that we can use it in the
> library. I would be grateful for any suggestions or
> documentation why this is o.k. or not o.k.
>
> Thank you very much,
> Hella Bluhm-Stieber
>
> Hella Bluhm-Stieber, MLIS, AHIP
> Medical Librarian

> Milton J. Chatton Medical Library
> Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System
> 751 S. Bascom Ave.
> San Jose, CA 95128
> (408) 885-5654
> Fax (408) 885-5655
>
>
>
> NOTICE: This email message and/or its attachments may contain
> information that is confidential or restricted. It is
> intended only for the individuals named as recipients in the
> message. If you are NOT an authorized recipient, you are
> prohibited from using, delivering, distributing, printing,
> copying, or disclosing the message or content to others and
> must delete the message from your computer. If you have
> received this message in error, please notify the sender by
> return email.
>