Friends: Mr Albert Henderson wrote: "There was no problem linking library and R&D spending during the 1960s, when political pressures demanded better science. It would seem fundamental to any school child that spending on libraries used to prepare R&D must be a part of R&D policy.
It was only after Western men walked on the moon that universities felt comfortable cutting money from libraries and sending it to the bottom line. The money is there, in the surpluses that show up clearly in tax reports and in the statistics of income and expenditure." Mr Henderson talks about increasing funds for libraries in the context of USA and other rich countries. What about the rest of the world? ARL and SPARC have gathered considerable amount of statistics to show that the increase in cost per page of most journals is much higher than can be justified merely on the basis of inflation. There was the famous litigation between a commercial publisher and a professional society after an article comparing journal prices appeared in Physics Today. Clearly, publishing firms needed a jolt and that was what happened when libraries took tough stands against leading commercial publishers, and scientists resigned from the editorial boards of costly commercial journals to start less expensive alternatives journals. Even in the rich countries, most people felt that the publishers were taking the academic community for a ride. Mr Henderson wants funds to libraries to be increased. What do libraries do? They provide access to information needed by researchers, faculty and students and other clients. If the information can be provided by means of open archives at a much lower cost than through printed (or electronic) journals, I think we should accept the less expensive alternative. We can save money and use it for other purposes useful to the faculty and students instead of giving it away to some publisher. Arun ___________________________________________________________ BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save £80 http://btyahoo.yahoo.co.uk