At 01:33 PM 5/31/2006, you wrote:
>We've had various physicians do this for us
>over the years by subscribing and then immediately
>giving us the issue when it arrives.  Unfortunately,
>it never seemed to work out.  We never managed to
>obtain all of the issues for a volume from anyone.
>
>People mean well when they offer to do this but, in my
>experience, something always happens where they either
>forget to send an issue on or they wanted to keep just
>'that one'.

Doesn't really address the legal issue, and I think Ms. Bluhm-Stieber is
right -- if the subscription will be available to all the patrons of a
library, the institutional rate should probably be paid.  But I'm no expert
on this.

As for the reliability of donors, well, there are occasional exceptions,
from whom we've gotten very, very close to complete runs over many years of
donations -- as good as we would've had with a subscription.  But they are
the rare exceptions.

Suppose the library were to share the cost of an institutional subscription
with a donor who was getting a personal subscription anyway.  The donor
would pay the cost of the personal subscription, the library would pay the
rest and provide institutional online access.  Perhaps this kind of
"contract" would encourage the donor to be more diligent about donating all
the print issues, eventually if not immediately.  The donor would get the
benefit of IP-authenticated online access, so they wouldn't have to fool
with personal passwords; perhaps that benefit would give them a sense of
obligation.

Even if it worked, though, such small savings probably wouldn't be enough
to solve this library's budget problems.  And I imagine such arrangements
might cause other problems or extra work, too.  SW

>_________________________________
>Lee Ann Howlett, MA
>Head, Serials, Dept.
>Shimberg Health Sciences Library
>University of South Florida
>12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 31
>Tampa, FL  33612
>(813) 974-9080
>(813) 974-7032 (fax)
>Email:  LHOWLETT@HEALTH.USF.EDU
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
>[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Bluhm-Stieber, Hella
>Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 12:27 PM
>To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
>Subject: [SERIALST] Institutional versus personal subscriptions
>
>Hello all,
>We are facing severe budget cuts and need to cancel half of our journal
>subscriptions. The suggestion was made to ask for donations from
>physicians who subscribe to certain journals the library needs. We are
>concerned about the legal implications of this. We explained to our
>management that we think that this is against copyright law.
>One problem is that the doctors can pay for subscriptions through their
>educational fund, but cannot donate money from it.
>
>We think that the donors would have to pay for an institutional copy in
>order that we can use it in the library. I would be grateful for any
>suggestions or documentation why this is o.k. or not o.k.
>
>Thank you very much,
>Hella Bluhm-Stieber
>
>Hella Bluhm-Stieber, MLIS, AHIP
>Medical Librarian
>Milton J. Chatton Medical Library
>Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System
>751 S. Bascom Ave.
>San Jose, CA 95128
>(408) 885-5654
>Fax (408) 885-5655

Susan Wishnetsky
Electronic Resources Librarian
Galter Health Sciences Library
The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
303 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611-3008

(312) 503-9351
FAX (312) 503-1204
pasiphae@northwestern.edu