Here at UW-La Crosse, we have been moving many of our subscriptions from
print to electronic access only, especially as electronic access is
perceived as the norm now by our student users.  Typically, our
electronic subscriptions include a couple years of backfiles (which
makes these subscriptions even more appealing).

This summer, we ran into the most unusual e-only subscription that we
have ever heard of and I want to make sure that you all hear of this too
in case our collective voice can work to change this most distressing
situation.

We subscribe to Reading Research Quarterly and Reading Teacher through
an International Reading Association combination package.  These are
popular journals at our institution so we decided last year to move both
to e-only.  We learned that our subscription to both titles starts in
January of each year.  Reading Research Quarterly begins its volume in
January, but Reading Teacher begins its volume in August.  While this
gap was no problem in a print environment, it has become a disaster in
an electronic environment.  Our electronic access to Reading Teacher
started with v.59, no.5 because that was the first issue published after
January.  No backfiles are available for purchase.  I thought that we
could pay extra to have electronic access to v.59, no.1-4 and was told
that we could certainly do that, but that our access to v.59 would end
at the beginning of v.60.

That's right, an electronic only subscription to Reading Teacher and
Reading Research Quarterly includes access to the current issues in your
subscription year only.  We do have a microfilm subscription to Reading
Teacher, but with the current setup, we would be without any access to 4
issues of the current volume each year.

I thought I had come up with the solution to this perplexing problem by
trying to get a print+online subscription.  Most publishers usually
charge an extra 5%-10% for this option.  The International Reading
Association, however, does not offer such a deal.  The only way to get
print + online is to order two different subscriptions - one for print
and one for electronic - paying twice for the same content.

My next thought was to extend our subscription year by 6 months so that
we could get on a schedule where we had access to a full volume of
Reading Teacher each year.  But, if we change the subscription start
date for Reading Teacher, we must change it for Reading Research
Quarterly as well, meaning that we'd be losing access to content from
Reading Research Quarterly.  There is no option to order these titles
separately.

My contact over at International Reading Association
(http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/rt/subscribe.html)
mentioned that I was not the first librarian to call and complain about
their access.  Yet, she did not have details about any plans to fix this
irritating situation.  WorldCAT lists 1,897 libraries with holdings of
the Reading Teacher and 1,228 libraries with holding for Reading
Research Quarterly.  If your library subscribes to these titles and you
are upset about the terms of their electronic access, please call the
publisher and let them know.  Perhaps if 1,000 librarian voices are
heard, they will change more quickly.

I'd also be interested in hearing how other libraries are dealing with
these titles.

Thanks!

Jen Holman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jenifer Holman
Acquisitions Librarian
Murphy Library
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
1631 Pine St.
La Crosse, WI 54601

phone: 608-785-8395
fax: 608-785-8639
email: holman.jeni@uwlax.edu
http://www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/
<http://www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/>