As Chemistry Journals' Prices Rise, a Librarian Just Says No - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education
peter.suber's bookmarks 2012-09-27
Summary:
Only the first couple of paragraphs are OA. Excerpt: "The American Chemical Society publishes some of the best scholarly journals in the field. Jenica P. Rogers just can't afford them anymore.
Ms. Rogers, director of libraries at the State University of New York at Potsdam, won't be renewing her institutional subscription to the society's current online journals package. As of January 1, 2013, the Potsdam campus's chemistry faculty and students will make do with content from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Elsevier's ScienceDirect, and a handful of single-title ACS subscriptions.
Academic librarians have to make tough decisions all the time about what content to buy and how much they can spend for it, but they rarely discuss those decisions in public. Ms. Rogers has brushed away the veil of secrecy, posting a detailed account of the ACS situation on her blog.
"Librarians, this is a call to action," she wrote. If enough librarians find alternatives to high-priced subscription deals, she added, "maybe together we can make enough choices to make our voices heard." ..."