Re: Snooze/lose (Was: Academics and coursepacks)

On Wed, 26 Aug 1998, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> The trend of academic books and journals since the proliferation of the
> Xerox 914 in the 1960s has been falling sales balanced by rising prices.
> Typical printings of learned monographs once ranged between 1500 and
> 2500 copies sold primarily to libraries. Today editions are half or
> less that number in spite of a doubling of people with advanced degrees.
> Interlibrary (photocopying) loan, coursepacks, individuals substituting
> copies for purchases, and loss of library purchasing power all
> contribute. Underlying the degenerative cycle is the administrative
> preference for copy machines over books.

There are still more factors to add to Albert Henderson's list, though it is a good beginning. I suggest: a) the change in tax regulations in the U.S.A., which cut the ability of publishers to add cost of storing unsold copies as a form of depreciation or overhead expense (I don't recall this exactly) and led to much shorter print runs and much earlier remaindering; and b) the well documented (from their own mouths - cf. Publishers Weekly) thrust of some publishers for a substantial level of return on investment, regardless of what else was going on in the world. However, I would not attribute so much causal weight to the photocopier as he does. It is fair (imo) to state that various advances in copying (and printing) technology, scanning and creation of text and illustrations using computers has also reduced the cost of production to a significant degree.

Cheers,

Bernard Katz, Head, Special Collections and Library Development McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph, Guelph ON Canada N1G 2W1 and Chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Action Committee bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca // (519) 824-4120 X2089 // FAX: (519) 824-6931 Received on Thu Aug 27 1998 - 17:12:06 GMT