-Guidelines for Journal Usage (Dan Lester) Marcia Tuttle 16 Jul 1996 13:11 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:58:18 -0600 From: Dan Lester <DLESTER@BSU.IDBSU.EDU> Subject: -Guidelines for Journal Usage (Albert Henderson) -Reply Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 17:58:04 EDT From: Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM> Peer reviewers, including those that decide what research to underwrite, are stuck with the same poor information resources as the grant writers. If we can improve the information resource, we can improve the cost-effectiveness of research and you won't have to be a heretic any more. If only ten percent of the $14 billion contributed to academic R&D by the Federal government could be saved by doubling library materials expenditures at universities, we would break even. Actually, I am suggesting an improvement in productivity rather than a cut in Federal support. Libraries could spend it any way they felt wise. ------------------------------------- Two points: First, I may always be a heretic in these matters. o-) Second, sure, ten percent would be nice. But the chances of that happening in our lifetimes is so remote that I'd probably be better off investing in stocks for a company that will mine gold on the moon. (and, I'm 53, and remember '48, but not the item you cite later on. ) ================ I also think it would be a wise policy for the Fed to invite more grants for library research, to evaluate the work that has been done and published. We would need some good library collections, but the result would be better productivity all round. ---------------------------- So do I. But again, the chances of significant increases in those funds is right up there with the Gold from the Moon stocks. NOTE: By saying there isn't a snowball's chance for some of these things happening doesn't mean I think that dogooders shouldn't try for them. But, being "old and cynical" I'm not going to sit around and wait for them when I've got regular daily work to get done to help our patrons get by with the money and materials and staff that we DO have. ================== [All this time they were telling the libraries they had to cancel subscription because they had no money.] The scandal, which never mentioned the trampling of the library budget, was sufficient embarrassment to cause the resignation of the president of Stanford University in 1991 who I suspect never looked over the shoulder of the bookkeeper during his 11 years in office. ------------------------------- Right. We all read it in the _Chronicle_ and even in the local dailies. And, yes, there are others who do such shaky things. If they were done in the publicly supported institutions, the offenders would likely end up in jail. But that, like the free dinners, is a fact of life. I can't defend criminals, but I'm also not so naive as to think we'll ever eliminate all of them, at least in this life. ================== The professional associations that have been chartered to represent the interests of their members in the promotion and dissemination have considerable explaining to do, it seems to me. They have not been living up to their mission statements. If they have been simply coasting, they might well face a challenge to their nonprofit status. Of course, it is up to the members to urge them into action. ---------------------- Good point. And professional associations necessarily get some hearing come departmental accreditation time. Of course the fact that the great majority of the necessary journals on the ACS's list for Chem Dept accreditation are published BY the ACS doesn't help their credibility with the administration, the Board, or Joe Citizen. (personally, from my limited knowledge of the lit of chem, many of the top journals DO come from ACS...but not perhaps in the proportion they require for accreditation) ===================== If a faculty senate is more than a rubber stamp of administrative policy, then faculty should have a local voice as well. ---------------- I'm sure that there must be a useful and powerful faculty senate somewhere in the world. But, I've never seen it in seven institutions, and I've never really heard of one. But, it could happen.... cyclops Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA voice: 208-385-1235 fax: 208-385-1394 dlester@bsu.idbsu.edu OR alileste@idbsu.idbsu.edu Cyclops' Internet Toolbox: http://cyclops.idbsu.edu "How can one fool make another wise?" Kansas, 1979.