In all such instances I have seen, it has turned out not to be only the
faculty member who was interested, but also his students and associates.
Again, in all such cases, they have had difficulty in getting access to
the material in spite of all assurances otherwise from the faculty member.
I recognize that this might be different in a  small undergraduate
college.

The faculty are not trained or prepared to preserve  and
provide access to material. Librarians are.

Dr. David Goodman, Princeton University Biology Library
dgoodman@princeton.edu            609-258-3235

On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Peter Picerno wrote:

> I would like to clarify the following statement which I made in response
> to Mr. Henderson's posting and which Mr. Lester pointed out.
>
> When I wrote: "It is even possible that some enterprising libraries might
> go so far as to pay departments or individuals in departments to subscribe
> as individuals rather than to burden the library with an inordinately
> expensive institutional subscription." I was NOT advocating that a library
> empower an individual to subscribe as an individual on behalf of a
> library, but I was merely stating that it would be worth it to the library
> to pay the faculty member to subscribe as an individual and to keep the
> issues themselves rather than to burden the library with both the
> subscription cost as well as the long-term maintenance of a title which
> would be of little use (because of its narrow focus and esoteric nature)
> to the academic community.
>
> I'm sure that we all have had experiences with subscriptions which are in
> support, largely, of one person's research interest, and I do not believe
> that it is economically feasible for many libraries to support that sort
> of bibliographic generosity, whereas it might be more possible for an
> academic department to do so.
>
> Peter Picerno
> <ppicerno@UTMEM.EDU>