-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: ACS web edition -- Rani Sinha
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 17:31:54 -0600
From: Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com>
Reply-To: Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com>
Organization: RiverOfData.com

Tuesday, May 29, 2001, 2:57:57 PM, you wrote:

SDC> modest ~$3.4 K per annum.  The terms of the agreement stipulated
that we
SDC> would not be able to cancel print subscriptions already ongoing,
for the
SDC> duration of this consortial agreement.

SDC> The chemistry faculty, however, reassessed its needs and asked to
cancel
SDC> the print subscription for the 2001 year to one of the journals.
ACS
SDC> expects payment for the $700 print subscription anyway.  It may
very
SDC> well be that faculty will request additional print subscriptions be
SDC> ended in future, because our science and engineering faculty are
SDC> increasingly comfortable with print-only access and would rather
the
SDC> funds be used for resources other than a duplicate print
subscription.

SDC> Has anyone else faced this situation?  How did you handle it?

We haven't faced exactly that problem, but it sounds to me like it is
strictly an economic decision, at least if you don't have librarians
or faculty worrying about "what happens if ACS goes out of business
and the we couldn't get the electronic and we should have the paper
for archival reasons and besides the internet might be down and...
and...  and....  "  (enter your own list of arguments, of course)

SDC> I am in the process of assessing if it is still advantageous for
SDC> Lafayette to pay for a ghost subscription, but it doesn't make
sense to
SDC> me and actually goes against my institution's wish not to have
duplicate
SDC> holdings in multiple formats.

I'm a little confused here.  You already have duplicate holdings,
don't you?  You're paying for the paper and also getting the
electronic.  Of course you may decide to discard the paper instead of
retaining it.  And, as long as you're paying for it, I'll bet the ACS
would gladly not even mail it to you.

cheers

dan

--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan@RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com