Diane,

I have experienced the same on occasion..  Usually I receive an email notice that the backfiles are going to be offered as a “legacy collection”, with the date ranges indicated, but not always.   It’s not always specified that customers who previously enjoyed free access to the backfiles (with a current sub) will now have to pay for them—it’s implied by virtue of the publisher’s notice that the backfiles are now being packaged and sold as a separate product. 

I recall that Wiley changed their policy on with pre-1997 access when they merged with Blackwell..I asked my sales rep about it, and she explained that “Access as per the terms of the license is back to 1997. The former Blackwell had granted access to backfile content as a courtesy. We are unable to continue to extend that access beyond 1997.”

If there was a notice from Wiley about this, I was not the only person who missed it…My sales rep indicated she had had the same question from other customers also.

Joanne

Joanne Romano, MLS

Licensing and Serials Librarian

Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

1133 John Freeman Blvd.

Houston, TX  77030

From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Diane Netting Paldan
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 9:42 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Publisher change in policy -- Back Access to Journals

I was wondering is anyone else is experiencing this problem.   We have set up access to content of a journal when the publisher was giving back year access to all the years online – included with current subscription to title.   Then at some point the publisher changes back year access to a cut off date – often starting it sometime in the 1990’s.   This  may occur once they judge their back access can be sold separately.

The question – is anyone getting notification of the changes in access.   From publishers?  From vendors?

Diane

Diane Paldan

Serials/Preservation

Materials Processing & Preservation

Technical Services

135 Science and Engineering Library

Wayne State University

Detroit, MI  48202

(313) 577-0222