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

From: Bernard Katz <bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 16:42:32 -0400 ()

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998, Bert Boyce <lsboyc[_at_]lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu> wrote:
>
> "Data from the Library Journal suggest a more than eleven-fold increase
> in the price of scientific and technical journals between 1970 and 1990,
> which is equivalent to an average price increase of 13.5 percent per
> year" quoted from
>
> http://www.lib.virginia.edu/mellon/ch6.html
> University Libraries and Scholarly Communication
> A Study Prepared for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
> by Anthony M. Cummings, Marcia L. Witte, William G. Bowen, Laura O.
> Lazarus, and Richard H. Ekman
> Published by The Association of Research Libraries for The Andrew W.
> Mellon Foundation November 1992,
>
> a publication I recommend to anyone who wants to know about University
> Library costs.
>
> Mr. Henderson's figures show LSU's materials budget as essentially flat
> during the period while journal costs increase 11 fold. I don't know if
> that is a sky rocket or fast elevator but it can sure take your breath
> away. I certainly don't want to be on the side of reduced library
> budgets, but it is journal cost and fixed budgets, not copying that is
> hurting book sales to academic libraries.

I would like to underscore Dean Bert Boyce's information and comments with regard to photocopying and journal costs. One should not lose sight of the fact that the photocopier has essentially replaced hand copying and taking notes by hand from journal articles and books, on the part of students. The vast volume of copying that takes place on campuses today - apart from the creation of course packs - is really a form of note taking. Most of these photocopies are not retained by the students, but are eventually if not immediately discarded, once the essay/assignment has been completed. Would these students have purchased a subscription to the journal instead of photocopying? Would they have purchased individual issues that contained article(s) required for their work? Would they have purchased the many books out of which they needed a few pages of information or data instead of photocopying them? I doubt this very much. In a national study of photocopying practices in Canadian libraries undertaken in 1986, it was found that almost half of the copying being done from journals consisted of 10 percent or less of one article. Practically no multiple copies were being made. (cf. Francoise Hebert. Photocopying in Canadian Libraries: Report of a National Study. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1987.)

In Canada, after many years of negotiation, copying for sale to students (eg. coursepacks) and even multiple copying for "free" distribution to an entire class has been covered by blanket licencing from and fees paid to the Canadian Copyright Licencing Agency (CANCOPY). These are in turn distributed to authors and publishers. Similar schemes exist in many countries and even in the U.S.A. some educational uses require copyright clearance. Nevertheless, journal prices keep rising at rates that far exceed the commodity and labour costs. And as for scientific, technical and scholarly journal titles, there is virtually no cost to the publisher for the contents - if anything there is a per page charge or mss. reading fee collected from the authors!

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

e-m: bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca // v: 519-824-4120, ext.2089 // fax: 519-824-6931 Received on Tue Sep 01 1998 - 20:44:57 GMT