That's certainly a positive PR spin put to the practice, but don't be
fooled.  The purpose is to make sure they get the $10,000 out of the
library whenever possible.

John McDonald
Acquisitions Librarian
California Institute of Technology

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Kim Maxwell
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 10:48 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Elsevier 'associated' subscriptions -John Lucas

You're missing the point.  It isn't that the journal only costs $500 so
why
are institutions being charged $10,000.  It's that *because* the
institution pays the $10,000, Elsevier feels they can then charge just
$500
for personal subscriptions.  They describe the associated personal price
fee as follows:

"As a service to your scientific community, we are able to offer those
associated with institutions where a regular rate subscription is
currently
in place, the opportunity to subscribe at a low price. Associated
Personal
Subscriptions are sold at a price which covers our print run-on,
despatch
and handling costs only. Now you can receive your own copy, delivered to
you personally, without waiting for your turn on the circulation list."

Just to be clear, I'm not defending Elsevier's pricing structure at all.
I
think there are a myriad other ways they could develop a pricing model
that
would work better for all different kinds of institutions.  However,
librarians seem to think we're all in this scholarly communication thing
together, and that everyone should play fairly and in the best interests
of
scholarship. I'm not sure I still believe that's true.

Kim Maxwell