Re: consortium to discuss electronic storage

Re. the portion of the posted message that follows:

"The online library therefore would be some problem, but the online bookstore / magazine store could be horrific if people can't browse without
someone collecting copyright fees."

        Perhaps it is too rigid a definition of "library" that causes this distinction to be made- but it is a n important distinction and one which deserves some thought. Many libraries are becoming more interested in fee-based services, often by necessity. Information consumers, like others, may be happy to pay for a customized product with convenient delivery. There is a limit, however, beyond which such customization and convenience becomes too onerous. I get the feeling that through various interpretations and contortions that permissions could be secured for certain types of electronic reformatting, transmission, display, and dissemination- but that by the product might be prohibitively expensive.

        Take the University Microfilm International ProQuest full-text periodical databases. UMI has done a great deal to advance full-text storage and retrieval- and their workstations have software which track use on an item level! But at Columbia, the result is a very nice laser printed page for 25 cents; is this too much money for convenience? And will only large corporations be able to negotiate the rights and permissions necessary to run this sort of system?

        It is fair to assume that it is impossible to secure permissions for 100% of a large reserves collection (even just the journal articles). But knowing that someone has already negotiated rights and permissions to do what UMI has done makes me feel like electronic reserves is not impossible. And that's what makes it frustrating!

        A much more eloquent and informed rephrasing from another posting here- "The result is that you need a lot of permissions just to use electronic materials".

        So where do we go from here?

		--Jeff Rosedale
	Columbia University Libraries

nb opinions are mine alone... Received on Thu Sep 16 1993 - 21:45:43 GMT